Rt. Rev. Edrqur\d 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 Rt. Rev- Edmund Burke 
 
 BISHOP OF ZION 
 First Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia 
 
 CORNELIUS O'BRIEN, D.D. 
 
 Archbishop of Halifax 
 
 OTTAWA : 
 
 THOBURN & CO., PRINTERS, ELGIN STREET 
 1894 
 
>* 
 
 D 
 
 c 
 
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1894, 
 
 By C. O'BRIEN, D.D., 
 At the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 M223067 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the subject of the following Memoirs was not by 
 birth, a Canadian ; yet was he one by adoption, by long years of 
 active service for the public good, and by his love of, and faith in, 
 what his keen foresight gave him a calm and settled assurance 
 would be a great country. Edmund Burke, the brilliant professor, 
 the zealous missionary imperilling his life to prevent unprincipled 
 traders from trafficking in rum with the Indians, the outspoken 
 though courteous controversalist and the successful Bishop, must 
 take a high place amongst the great men who have left their mark 
 on the pages of our history. 
 
 But our history is yet to be written ; and, so far as we 
 know, biographies in the English language, of any of our great 
 men are rare ; although autobiographies, paid for at a certain rate 
 per page, are not uncommon. In many superficial sketches of our 
 history that do exist, poor missionary priests are not honoured by 
 much mention, and yet, they, more than generals or admirals, 
 laid strongly and well the basis of society, and moulded, in no 
 small measure, its opinions, and shaped its actions. We believe 
 that a perusal of the pages of these Memoirs will confirm this 
 assertion. 
 
 The writer regrets that the number of hours which could be 
 spared from official duties were not sufficient to enable him to 
 make these Memoirs as full as he should wish. They are accurate, 
 however, as far as they go. The Archives of Quebec, of Halifax, 
 and of the Propaganda, Rome, have been laid under contribution, 
 
and have yielded a rich return in the shape of letters, written by 
 Dr. Burke during the thirty-four years of his life in Canada. 
 
 We have not been able to do more than allude to the very 
 important fact, too often overlooked, or denied, that the settle- 
 ment made at Port Royal by De Monts and Poutrincourt has an 
 unbroken continuity to our day ; and that Nova Scotia is the 
 mother of civilization, and her Church the oldest, in English 
 speaking America. Nova Scotia scholars will, we hope, elucidate 
 more fully this interesting point. 
 
 The writer has set down naught in malice ; historic truth has 
 been sought, and when found it has been given regardless of its 
 adaptation to the views of friend or foe. Any other line of action 
 would be unworthy of a scholar, and an insult to reason. 
 
 With the hope that these Memoirs may, in some slight degree, 
 aid in building up a national literature, in increasing a knowledge 
 of, and respect for their subject, and in preparing the way for an 
 Ecclesiastical History of the Maritime Provinces, they are offered 
 to the public. 
 
Memoirs of Rt. Rev. Edmund Burke 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM IRELAND TO QUEBEC. 
 
 N the summer of 1786 there arrived at Quebec, "friendless 
 and moneyless, a stranger and unknown," as he himself after- 
 wards expressed it, one destined to act, in the New World, 
 many parts with unvarying success, and to leave the impress 
 of his Apostolic labours over vast tracts of the United States, Can- 
 ada and Nova Scotia. Ancient heroes there were before Agamem- 
 non, but they are unknown to fame because they lacked a poet to 
 recount their deeds and valour sacro quia carucre vate ; so too 
 many noble missionaries in mo*e recent days have been forgotten, 
 the rich harvest, from fields which they had sown with toil, and 
 watered with their sweat and their tears, has been ascribed to those 
 who came after them, because, rot belonging to a Religious Order, 
 they had no brother to chronicle their actions, and no Society to 
 keep a record of their achievements. As a missionary the secular 
 priest is the most man-forsaken of men in life, and generally the 
 least thought of after death. We do not seek to detract from the 
 glory of members of any Religious Order who have been pioneer 
 missionaries ; but it must be noted that usually they had compan- 
 ions, or could easily rejoin them. The secular priest on the other 
 hand went forth alone. Henceforth for him there was no home 
 save the virgin forest ; no companionship save that of the savage ; 
 no resting place in sickness save the rude wigwam, or perchance a 
 bed of leaves in some sheltered cave. The Recording Angel alone 
 took a note of his sacrifices and labours, and only the loving eye of 
 
our Father in heaven saw his last struggle with, and triumph over 
 the torments of his persecutors, or the ravages of some deadly 
 pestilence. The " crown of justice," however, is his, albeit the 
 wreath of fame may not deck his lonely grave, nor the album of 
 the canonized contain his forgotten name. 
 
 Of this glorious army of missionary priests was the subject of this 
 sketch, the Reverend Edmund Burke, afterwards Bishop of Zion, 
 and first Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia. Born in the parish of 
 Maryborough, near Hophall, County Kildare, Ireland, in the year 
 1753, of parents in comfortable circumstances, he evinced in early 
 life those qualities which mark a soul set apart as sacred to the 
 Lord. In his youth the penal laws were still unrepealed, though 
 not always enforced. Notwithstanding that education for Catholics 
 was under a ban the innate love of Irishmen for learning led them 
 to brave fines, or imprisonment in its pursuit. Sometimes kindly 
 feelings subsisted between the well paid State parson who had no 
 flock, and the hunted priest who had the spiritual charge of thou- 
 sands. In such cases the Catholics of the district lived without 
 fear of molestation, and could have their schools more or less 
 openly. But to acquire a professional education it was absolutely 
 necessary to go abroad. In early centuries Ireland had been the 
 home of science and knowledge, and strangers flocked to her 
 schools. Now her children were obliged to seek in foreign parts that 
 knowledge which the cruel policy of the invader had made penal 
 at home. Hence young Burke was sent to Paris where he made a 
 brilliant course of studies, and won high honours at its university, 
 especially in philosophy and mathematics. He returned in due 
 time to Ireland and began the work of his ministry. Before many 
 years had elapsed he was made parish priest of the town of Kildare, 
 a not uncertain proof of his character and ability. 
 
 Owing to the state of affairs in the political and social life of 
 Ireland at that day, it is not surprising that difficulties, nay, even 
 serious dissensions should arise, and parties be formed, each hotly 
 intent on supporting its own views. Such dissensions appear to 
 have existed in the Diocese of Kildare regarding the appointment 
 of Dr. Delany, in 1783, as Coadjutor Bishop. Father Burke 
 
espoused the cause of Dr. Delany and thereby incurred the ill will 
 of several influential parties in the diocese. The natural outcome 
 was a condition of things as distasteful to Father Burke as it was 
 at variance with the interests of religion. The instincts of the 
 missionary, that had lain dormant in his soul, awoke to life, and 
 on the advice of the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr, Carpenter, he 
 resolved to leave Ireland. Through the instrumentality of the 
 Abbe Hussey, who was the agent in London of the Bishop of 
 Quebec, he turned his steps towards Canada, arriving as we have 
 seen at Quebec in the summer of 1786. In a memorial* of Bishop 
 Hubert, of Quebec, dated 2oth May, 1790, we read that his pre- 
 decessor, Mgr. D'Esglis, had sought permission for Irish or English 
 priests to come to Quebec for the instruction of youth in the 
 seminary, or as missionaries to the Indians. The qualities re- 
 quired were . ist, a testimony from their Bishop as to good life 
 and morals ; 2nd, that they should be learned in Philosophy and 
 Theology ; 3rd, of a sociable character and devoted to their Ec- 
 clesiastical duties ; 4th, adapted to lead a regular and laborious 
 life in the seminary ; 5th, that they could be sent back if not 
 found suitable. This list of requirements will give a fair idea of 
 the character and attainments of Father Burke, for he was accepted 
 and remained until promoted to higher offices of trust. 
 
 On his arrival he was at once received at the Seminary of Que- 
 bec, and began in September his duties as Professor of Philosophy 
 and Mathematics. Of his success as Professor we may judge by 
 the fact that he soon became one of the Directors of that vene- 
 rable seat of learning. The writer, too, of his obituary published 
 in the "Acadian Recorder," Halifax, December 2nd, 1820. says: 
 " He taught (at Quebec) the higher branches of Mathematics and 
 Philosophy with great credit to himself, and benefit to the numerous 
 students, who crowded to hear the lectures of a man celebrated 
 in the University of Paris, as excelling most men of his day in 
 mathematical science, and also the classics, particularly in the 
 Greek and Hebrew languages." 
 
 *Mand. Queb., Vol II. 
 
Having won a position of some eminence by his talents, and 
 the respect and confidence of his ecclesiastical superiors in Que- 
 bec by his priestly life, he felt sufficiently independent to write, 
 without endangering his self-respect, to Dr. Troy, Archbishop of 
 Dublin, congratulating him on his promotion to that See, and giv- 
 ing his reasons for having left Ireland. It must be borne in mind 
 that Dr. Troy either knew, or could readily ascertain their truth. 
 From a letter dated at the seminary,, Quebec, yth July, 1788 we 
 quote : 
 MY LORD, 
 
 You will be surprised, perhaps, to receive a letter from this dis- 
 tant quarter of the world and immediately conclude, as great men 
 generally do, some grace expected. No, My Lord, I have no grace or 
 favour to ask or expect. I'm independent (thank Heaven) but I once 
 had the honour of being known to Your Grace and flattered myself 
 with holding a place in your esteem ; and as I'm not conscious 
 of any act by which I might have forfeited the good opinion of any 
 man who does not found a judgment on the clamor of cabal and 
 intrigue, I assume the liberty of complimenting, not you, My Lord, 
 on your appointment to the See of Dublin, but the See of Dublin 
 on Your Grace's appointment. I may venture to assert in the sin- 
 cerity of my heart, that I, at all times, esteemed Doctor Troy, not 
 because a prelate, but as a man of sense and information, unpre- 
 judiced in his opinions and unbiased by party or faction. 
 
 You must, My Lord, have heard ot the several parties and factions 
 which divided the Diocese of Kildare previous to the appointment 
 of Doctor Delany to the coadjutorship of that distracted See. I 
 was thought to possess the confidence and direct the motions of the 
 late Bishop (tho' I never interfered in his business, nor would he 
 permit any man) consequently I incurred the displeasure of dis- 
 appointed ambition, and after a long struggle was forced to give way 
 to its resentment. Your predecessor Doctor Carpenter (who was 
 pleased to honour me with his esteem) advised me to imitate Jonas. 
 I did so, and friendless and moneyless a stranger and unknown I 
 arrived in Quebec, obtained a place in the seminary which requires 
 
greater talents than these with which the author of nature was 
 pleased to bless me.* 
 
 This letter in which we can see the sturdy independence of 
 Father Burke, his respect for legitimate authority, and the conscious- 
 ness of the rectitude of his past actions, is the first of a series that 
 continued for twenty years to Dr. Troy. On the appointment of 
 Dr. Murray, as coadjutor, Father Burke wrote to him regularly un- 
 til his death. In the letter above cited he says toward the end : 
 " I never desire or expect to see Ireland, yet I wish to preserve the 
 esteem of a good and virtuous man." That he did preserve it their 
 uninterrupted correspondence abundantly proves. 
 
 On October 24th, 1789, he writes to Dr. Troy : "Thank you 
 for a continuation of your esteem, I hope I never shall by any act 
 of mine forfeit it. I send this day to Mr. Hussey, London, a small 
 box containing some essence of Spruce Balsam of Canada, and an 
 extract of a medicinal tree which bears some resemblance to the 
 spruce. * * * I S end enclosed printed directions for making 
 spruce beer. The extract is a powerful antiscorbutic and purifier 
 of the blood. * * * The virtues of the Balsam of Canada are 
 well known to every physician, and you will find none so pure as 
 that which I send you." 
 
 I fear our physicians in this era of microphobia have outgrown 
 the simple remedies of our grandsires ; but the question remains 
 has life been made happier or more secure by the discovery of the 
 microbe ? 
 
 * Arc. Hal. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS LIFE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 HE years which form the warp of our sketch were crucial 
 ones for the church in Quebec. Although the exercise of 
 religion was perfectly free, and the persons of the clergy 
 respected, still the government sought to acquire a control 
 over ecclesiastical affairs, both in the appointment of the Bishop 
 of Quebec, and in the presentation of the pastors to the chief 
 parishes. Then, too, as the number of Protestant immigrants to 
 Canada increased, there was born a silent desire, and an unspoken 
 resolve, to decatholicize the country, without breaking the articles 
 of the treaty. But there were vigilant watchmen on the towers of 
 Israel. They had known enough of the disasters inflicted on re- 
 ligion, both at home and in France, when the Church had been 
 dragged at the chariot wheels of the State. True, they had not then 
 had the sad object-lesson presented by the France of to-day, when 
 one scarcely knows whether to shed tears of pity at the sight of the 
 enchained helplessness of its bishops and clergy in the meshes of a 
 " concordat," or to be indignant at their not only ready acquiescence 
 in, but frantic defence of this badge of their slavery, whilst making 
 childish pretentions to a freedom which they know they have not. 
 Without this deplorable lesson the ecclesiastical authorities of Que- 
 bec had sufficient prudence and firmness to successfully resist the 
 insidious attempts made to enslave, with a view to ultimately de- 
 stroy. The Church had been disenthralled by the conquest ; the 
 conquerors should never forge new shackles to bind it again. This 
 was their resolve ; and the day of their triumph, complete and en- 
 during, was to come at last. But anxious years, years of earnest 
 vigilance had to intervene. 
 
 The government was desirous of establishing a mixed university, 
 and in August, 1789, Chief Justice Smith submitted their project to 
 
7 
 
 Bishop Hubert. * The object of the government was, apparently 
 a laudable one, viz., to promote higher education in the province. 
 Dazzled by the brilliancy of the scheme, and not having grasped its 
 far-reaching consequences, Mgr. Bailly, the coadjutor bishop, es- 
 poused it warmly. Father Burke, too, appears to have been more 
 or less favourable to the idea, although he prudently held aloof 
 from the discussions which followed. Fresh from a country in 
 which even a secondary education was unattainable by a Catholic, 
 we need not be surprised that he should hail as a boon the offer of 
 a university which " should protect the Catholic and the Protes- 
 tant," as the scheme read. Moreover he thought a concession on 
 this point, in which to him it seemed no principle was involved, 
 would ward off the indubitable evil of government interference with 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction . In a letter of June 6th, 1 790, he writes : 
 " Without being a prophet I begin to forsee that the Governor in- 
 tends to take into his hands the presentation to all the livings in the 
 province, and thereby almost annihilate the Bishop's jurisdiction. 
 Such are his instructions from the minister. It would not be diffi- 
 cult to prevent it if the Bishop were tractable, and willing to make 
 some very trifling concessions." f His prevision of the government's 
 action was quite accurate, although the attempt was not made for 
 several years. J But his judgment on the efficacy of the means to 
 prevent it was at fault. The Bishop of the Diocese with his sense 
 of responsibility for the spiritual good of his flock, and aided by the 
 grace of office, opposed the scheme, and preserved intact the 
 Catholic education of his people. Later on one of his successors 
 set for ever at rest all pretentions ot the government to meddle 
 with the prerogatives of the Bishop. One fact is strongly brought 
 out by the events of those years, that is, the prudence of Father 
 Burke. He retained the confidence and esteem of his ecclesiasti- 
 cal superiors, as well as the goodwill of the government party. In 
 the letter last cited he writes : " Lord Dorchester expressed his 
 satisfaction at my conduct, remarking that he always thought me a 
 
 * (Mand. Qub. Vol. II.) t (Arc. Hal.) 
 
 J (Sec. Mand. Qub. Vol 
 
.8 
 
 good and faithful subject," and adds in parenthesis, not without a 
 touch of quiet humour (" which by the bye was no more than the 
 truth, as he has kept a watchful eye over all my actions since I 
 came to Quebec.") 
 
 Notwithstanding Father Burke was a learned man, and had a 
 great love for the sciences, he felt impelled to active missionary 
 work, and chafed under the professorial yoke. This is apparent 
 in various letters. He was always thinking of the vast fields for 
 evangelical labour that were lying fallow and sterile, and longing to 
 be set free to fertilize them by his ministry, and to reap thereon a 
 rich harvest of souls. In a letter which will be more fully quoted, 
 he says : " You must, My Lord, admit that teaching the catechism 
 is a more rational employment for a priest than giving lectures in 
 astronomy." As the giace of the ministry had been given him, 
 he avows his uneasiness lest his present mode of life should not be 
 in conformity with the state in which Providence had originally 
 placed him. It will sound strange to-day to hear that the " Gover- 
 nor General will not permit me to give a public instruction on any 
 religious subject within the City of Quebec." In 1790 having 
 completed a second course of lectures in philosophy, mathematics, 
 and astronomy, he found himself by the rules of the seminary 
 condemned for a time to comparative inaction. His active nature 
 and untiring energy could not calmly consent to this. Could he 
 have given religious conferences in Quebec his lot would have been 
 more endurable ; but this was forbidden. He stood, however, 
 high in the esteem of the Government ; hence a way appeared 
 open to do service to souls that were in darkness, and the shadow 
 of death, and also to satisfy his own longings for missionary labour. 
 On October 2oth, 1790, he therefore wrote to Dr. Troy : 
 My LORD, 
 
 Your favour of 27th July came safe to hand on the 6th of Oc- 
 tober. It found me in the most perfect state of idleness. I had 
 just finished a second course of philosophy. I send you a copy of 
 the thesis which the students sustained in the presence of a most 
 brilliant assembly ; they acquitted themselves beyond my expec- 
 tations. We are tenacious of ancient rules ; no consideration 
 
could engage us to break any of the statutes of our venerable an- 
 cestors ; one of these statutes condemns me to two years' rest, and 
 another will at the expiration of that time force me into a state 
 next to inaction, that is to teach one hour per day, and but five 
 days in the week. The Governor General will not permit me to 
 give a public instruction on any religious subject within the City of 
 Quebec ; and the Bishop in title will not permit me to leave the 
 town. He thinks our house not sufficiently supplied, though we 
 be seven in number. The coadjutor, an able politician, will not 
 hear of my leaving the town, because he intends to place me as 
 professor of astronomy in a university the charter of which is 
 this instant making out in the council. I need not tell Your Grace 
 that it is not the business of a clergyman * * * There is a 
 vast extent of country north of the lakes, beginning at Lake On- 
 tario, and running westwards to Lake Minitti, and thence to the 
 Pacific Ocean, possessed or claimed by England, in which, though 
 there are a great number of posts and several Indian villages whose 
 inhabitants are Catholics, there is not, nor has there been a single 
 missionary since the conquest of this province. There is not on 
 earth a country where missionaries are more wanted, or a country 
 more difficult of access to strangers, it being absolutely necessary 
 to have a passport from the Governor. I have been so cautious in 
 my political conduct since my arrival in Quebec that I have at 
 length (T.G.) set all prejudices aside, and am on the best terms 
 with the Governor and all the general officers, so that I can obtain 
 a passport when I please, and permission to establish a mission in 
 whatever quarter I please. I have no doubt of being able to ob-. 
 tain a pension from government for the support of a missionary. 
 Let me, therefore, request that you will, My Lord, graciously please 
 to write to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda to obtain a mis- 
 sion for me in that region ; and as the sacrament of confirmation 
 was never administered to those poor Catholics, a power of admin- 
 istering that sacrament would be of infinite use, if His Holiness 
 should think proper to grant it, with any other indulgence which 
 may be for the spiritual welfare of an hitherto abandoned people.* 
 
 Arc. Hal. 
 
10 
 
 His desire, however, was not to be gratified for some time. In- 
 stead of the wild missions of which he speaks, and to which he 
 longed to go, he was appointed to the quiet and civilized parish of 
 St. Peter, on the Island of Orleans. Here he exercised his minis- 
 try with zeal and success for three years or more. But he never 
 lost sight of the abandoned regions north and west of the great 
 lakes. The children of the forest were calling to his soul, and 
 his heart went out in pity at the thought of their desolation. He 
 laboured zealously in the mission confided to his care, but watched 
 and prayed for an opportunity to dispense the graces of the gospel 
 amongst the roving tribes of the west. This yearning desire to 
 follow in the footsteps of the apostles and martyrs, to carry the 
 light of the Gospel, and the graces of the sacraments to the wander- 
 ing children of the forest, begat a state of mind which Bishop 
 Hubert, missionary though he himself had been, did not quite 
 understand. He took it, as we shall see, for restlessness of spirit 
 and inconstancy of character. It was, however, only the restless- 
 ness of the needle until it has reached the attracting pole. 
 
 Dr. Troy did not fail to comply with Father Burke's request to 
 write to Rome on his behalf. In the Acts of the Congregation of 
 Propaganda tor the year 1792, it is stated that Archbishop Troy, 
 of Dublin, had made known to the Cardinals what Father Burke 
 had related regarding the spiritual destitution of the Catholic In 
 dians beyond Lake Ontario, and, also Father Burke's request to be 
 empowered to go as Apostolic Missionary to their succour, with all 
 necessary faculties. We will now translate literally from the Acts : 
 " The Sacred Congregation before taking any action on the peti- 
 tion, wrote last year to the Bishop of Quebec for information. He 
 replied that Father Burke was prudent, learned, sound in faith and 
 correct in morals ; that in the seminary of which he was one of 
 the directors he had taught with much applause the course of 
 Philosophy ; that he was deeply versed in the Scriptures, in Theo- 
 logy, and Canon Law. That he had left the seminary to take 
 charge of souls in a mission, with which he was fully satisfied ; but 
 he (the Bishop) did not think he would remain long in it by rea- 
 
11 
 
 son of a certain inconsistency of character." (We have already 
 explained this apparent restlessness.) 
 
 The Acts go on to state that the Bishop did not think the pro- 
 ject opportune ; that the wandering French and Indians in those 
 parts came to Canada to receive the Sacraments, but unfortunately 
 did not derive much benefit therefrom, abandoning themselves on 
 their return to drunkenness and profligacy amongst the Indians. 
 Moreover the Illinois now belonged to the Bishop of Baltimore, so 
 that below Lake Ontario there were only two Catholic parishes in 
 the proposed district, and these were attended to by two priests of 
 his diocese. If it should be necessary in the future to establish a 
 vicariate apostolic Bishop Hubert, " would be the first to propose 
 Father Burke." * 
 
 Events were slowly working out God's designs, and bringing about 
 the realization of Father Burke's aspirations. From an unexpect- 
 ed quarter the final impulse was given. Some years later writing 
 to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda, Father Burke says : " In 
 the year 1794 Governor Simcoe wrote to Lord Dorchester, Gover- 
 ner-General, that he much desired that a priest, loyal to the king, 
 and of proved fidelity, might be sent to Raisin River, on the west 
 of Lake Erie, to instruct the people in morality and their duty to- 
 wards the king. The Bishop of Quebec desirous of meeting the 
 wishes of the Governor, appointed me." t 
 
 Bishop Hubert in a letter of 2ist Nov., 1794, to Propaganda 
 says : " In sending Rev. Edmund Burke in September last to min- 
 ister to the Canadians living along Raisin River, seven leagues from 
 Detroit, I gave him a commission of Vicar General for the whole 
 of Upper Canada, but gave him no reason to hope for more." The 
 good Bishop's misunderstanding of Father Burke's character still 
 
 * From this, as well as from what will be said later on, it will very clearly 
 appear that to Father Burke's representations to Propaganda is due the fact that 
 Rome suggested the erection of Upper Canada into a Vicariate years before 
 Bishop Plessis had become Coadjutor. Burke grasped the idea that a whole 
 province, not merely one or two French Canadian parishes, should be spiritually 
 provided for. 
 t (Arc. Hal.) 
 
12 
 
 continued, for he again refers 10 his "inconstancy/' although he 
 admits his ability to fill with success his new position. We shall 
 see what was, and what might have been Father Burke's success 
 had his plans met with favor and sympathy. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 LIFE IN THE FOREST. 
 
 'the autumn of 1794 Father Burke writes a joyous letter to 
 his friend Dr, Troy, telling him that on the morrow he leaves 
 for his distant missions beyond the lakes. It is impossible to 
 form an accurate estimate of the dangers and difficulties of his 
 cheerless journey. Our imagination cannot picture a scene of 
 hardship that will equal the reality. Even a few years ago it was 
 deemed a feat of valour, and worthy ot high reward, to conduct a 
 troop of soldiers, partly by railroad, partly by steamer, and only 
 partially through the forest, to Fort Garry, there to face no enemy, 
 there to find the British flag kept flying by the rebels ! There 
 were no railways, no steamboats, no roads except a moose trail, or 
 the forest path of the silent Indian. But Father Burke was not 
 daunted by difficulties. Continuing the work of the apostles he 
 emulated their labours, and partook of their hardships and priva- 
 tions. Now he sailed in a clumsy caravel of the period ; now he 
 shot down a swift flowing stream in a birch bark canoe ; now he 
 tramped over pathless solitudes to reach some stream that might 
 aid him in his progress. At night the star-strewn firmament was 
 his roof; the voices of the woods his lullaby ; the wild beasts the 
 only sharers of his lonely watches. Thus he travelled on from 
 one outpost to another, ministering as he went to those whom he 
 found at or near the various forts. Prom Kingston he writes to 
 the Bishop of Quebec, on i4th October, 1794, saying: 
 
 " To-morrow, please God, I leave Kingston, having made the 
 necessary arrangements with the few Catholics who are here, for 
 Rev. Mr. McDonnell, of St. Regis, to visit them twice a year, until 
 such time as Providence shall enable us to establish a missionary 
 here, a thing I ardently desire. For Kingston is the beginning, 
 of a large town, and will naturally be the outlet of Upper Canada. 
 
14 
 
 It is, therefore, of importance to place a missionary here as soon 
 as possible, and whilst we stand well with the government. If we 
 could only build a church and priest's house ! but the Catholics 
 are too few in number, and too poor to undertake it alone. With- 
 out help from Lower Canada the thing is impossible. For a good 
 work which makes for the salvation of souls, Your Lordship will 
 find resources which I cannot point out ; and Providence will fur- 
 nish others of which I cannot even think." 
 
 We learn from this letter that Rev. Alex. McDonnell attended 
 some place in Upper Canada, probably New Johnson, but lived at 
 Montreal. His cousin Roderic attended St. Regis, where the In- 
 dians had built a nice little church. Father Burke ordered the 
 Rev. Alexander McDonnell to build a church in his mission, and to 
 reside there. 
 
 He left Kingston and passed by Niagara, to have an interview 
 with the Governor. He was quite satisfied with its result. Thence 
 he pushed on to Detroit, and after attending to matters there, went 
 still on to Fort Miami, now known as Maumee City, Ohio. Here 
 we find him in February, 1795, being the first English speaking 
 priest to minister in Ohio, as later on he was the first in Western 
 New York. What the country was like, what his own position 
 was, and how frontier battles were fought, we will allow Father 
 Burke himself to describe. It may be noted that his account of 
 the battle between the U. States troops and the Indians, whilst no 
 doubt true, differs widely from more popular versions. Writing 
 from Miami, Feb 2nd, 1795, to Dr. Troy, he says : 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I wrote from Quebec, if I rightly remember, the day before my 
 departure for this country. I am now distant about 500 leagues from 
 Quebec, on the western side of Lake Erie, within a few miles of the 
 Miami Fort lately built by the British Government to prevent the 
 incursions of the Yankees who have been successful in the last 
 campaign against the Indians. Four thousand Americans engaged 
 1,200 Indians and forced them to retire, only 400 Indian Hurons 
 and Ottawas engaged, and they retreated but a mile an hour before 
 .the whole American army. The Indians lost but 15 killed and a 
 
15 
 
 few wounded ; the Americans had 301 killed on the spot and 
 double the number wounded, and if all the Indians had come into 
 action an American would not have returned to tell the news. 
 Figure to yourself an army in which every man is his own com- 
 manding officer. Stark naked, their bodies painted in a most 
 frightful manner, every man lying flat on his face behind a tree, or 
 stump, and almost indiscernable, advancing or retiring like a rattle- 
 snake, his rifle in his hand, a great knife in his mouth, and his toma- 
 hawk on his back held by a leathern girdle, to which is fixed his 
 powder horn and pouch of balls ; he loads, levels and fires in that 
 position, and has not the most distant idea of losing a shot. The 
 Indian makes his first fire undiscovered, and then they scatter in 
 every direction, making the most horrid yells. 
 
 I am here in the midst of Indians, all heathens. This day a 
 grand council was held in my house by theXHtawas, Chippawas and 
 Poutowatomis. These people receive a certain quantity of Indian 
 corn from government, and I have been appointed to distribute it, 
 that gives me a consequence amongst them which I hope will be 
 useful, as soon as I can speak their language, which is not very 
 difficult. 
 
 This is the last and most distant parish inhabited by Catholics on 
 this earth. In it is neither law, justice, nor subjection ; you never 
 meet a man, either Indian or Canadian, without his gun in his hand 
 and his knife at his breast. My house is on the banks of a river 
 which falls in the lake, full of fish and fowl of all sorts. The finest 
 climate in the world and the most fertile lands, but no industry. 
 The Indian lives on hunting, the Canadian resembles him nearly. 
 At night the howling of wolves in pursuit of deer, the growling of 
 the bear, the hissing of the rattlesnake, the war-whoop of the Indian 
 and the sound of his rifle are rather disagreeable sounds, but not 
 at all uncommon. 
 
 So much for the country, now as to my mission. I am in the 
 administration of Upper Canada, with every Episcopal power, ex- 
 cept what requires the Episcopal Order ; yet I find a very great 
 want of power, for here the limits of jurisdiction are uncertain and 
 unsettled. The very parish in which I live may be a subject of dis- 
 
16 
 
 pute between the Bishop of Quebec and Baltimore, though it be 
 distant 400 or 500 leagues from either. That gives me some un- 
 easiness. I know no jurisdiction certain but that of His Holiness ; 
 besides, confirmation is a sacrament here totally unknown, in a 
 country where there are some thousands of Catholics.* 
 
 This letter enables us to realize, to some extent, the dreary con- 
 dition, less than one hundred years ago. of countries now teeming 
 with large cities, rich in cultivated fields, and everywhere inter- 
 sected with railroads. We frequently meet in the letters of Father 
 Burke references to the Sans Culottes and their emissaries. The 
 words Sans Culottes have become almost obsolete, although 
 once on the tongue of everyone ; their peculiar tenets and errors 
 are unknown except to the collector of curious opinions. Error 
 has many phases, but they are all evanescent. It is safe to pre- 
 dict that Agnostics and Agnosticism will be as little heard of, and 
 their form of error as much forgotten, fifty years hence, as is Sans- 
 Culottism to-day. In Father Burke's time, however, this latter 
 was as aggressive and as self sufficient as the agnosticism of our 
 generation. It was more violent, too, in its methods, as the follow- 
 ing extract from a letter dated at Detroit, 2oth May, 1795, will 
 show : 
 
 " The Sans Culotte emissaries kept me in continual danger of 
 my life. Murder is no crime amongst them ; to avoid it I have 
 been obliged to keep two Christian Indians well armed, who slept 
 in my room together with a hardy Canadian. I never walked out 
 but in company and always armed. Yet I had the consolation to 
 see some people make their Easter Communion, who have been 
 absent twenty or thirty years back. I have lived entirely at the 
 expense of the Government and under its protection. As I am 
 stationed on the Canadian lands, which are ceded to the Ameri- 
 cans, I must change my quarters. And a Mr. Frechette, a Cana- 
 dian clergyman, who resides in the Fort, tells me that he intends to 
 go down to Lower Canada ; that embarasses me. I wrote by this 
 post to the Bishop of Baltimore, to give him notice that if he can 
 
 * (Arc. Hal.) 
 
send two clergymen to occupy the vacant parishes I will give them 
 the necessary faculties. I do not know where his jurisdiction ends, 
 nor do I believe that he knows it himself. These regions are im- 
 mense ; and capable of occupying a number of missionaries, if 
 there were means to support them." 
 
 Rev. Mr. Frechette was in charge of St. Anne's, Detroit, and 
 Rev, Mr. Dufaux of L'Assomption, now Sandwich, Ontario. Father 
 Burke speaks as though at that period Raisin River and Miami were 
 convertible terms. It would appear that his district, St. Antoine, 
 extended south from Raisin River to Miami River, including thus 
 a part of Michigan, and a slice of the State of Ohio. Civilly that 
 territory was subject to England, but a year later it was transferred 
 to the United States. 
 
 Writing to the Bishop of Quebec, 2nd February, 1795, Father 
 Burke enters into the details of his vast mission. Whilst the pic- 
 ture is gloomy in its general outline, there are beams of light, and 
 rays of Divine Grace, flashing ever and anon athwart the canvas. 
 The turmoil of a frontier life re-acted on the religious, and neces- 
 sarily the latter suffered ; yet he can add : " God has enabled me 
 to bring back a number to their duty." His lodging was primitive, 
 and his chapel modest. He says : " The Priest's house is not 
 yet finished ; I have passed my winter in it almost in the open 
 air, without any servant except the man I brought with me. The 
 upper part serves for a church, and my little portable altar chest 
 contains its only vestments, and its only sacred vessels." He sug- 
 gests the expediency of placing two priests in Detroit, and two at 
 L'Assomption ; and expresses the hope of being able to gather the 
 Poutawatomis of St. Joseph, and the Ottawas of Michillimakinac, 
 into one village. His letters show how quickly he grasped the 
 wants of the situation, and how promptly he suggested adequate 
 measures for its benefit. But partly from the unsettled state of 
 public affairs, and partly, perhaps, from divergent views on the part 
 of the authorities at Quebec, his well planned schemes were not 
 put into execution. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HIS ZEAL FOR SOULS. 
 
 |ISIBLE success is not always the true measure of meri- 
 torious endeavour, nor a safe criterion of judgment on 
 the worth of an individual. The tiller does not always 
 witness the productiveness of his fields, nor does the sower always 
 garner the ripened harvest. Their work, however, is not in vain ; 
 nor is their reward deferred. Many souls were directly saved 
 through the zealous ministrations of Father Burke ; very many 
 more indirectly ; and his hopes although not realized to the full, 
 were not on that account foundationless. Writing to Rev. Father 
 Plessis, afterwards Bishop, he says : 
 
 " Here I am located at Raisin River amongst the Canadians 
 and Ottawas ; the latter trie more numerous, but unhappily not 
 Christians. But who knows the designs of God ? On my arrival 
 I endeavoured to win their favor by giving some little trifle to all 
 who came to me. Shortly after I received an order to furnish 
 them with provisions, and I began to understand them, and to be 
 understood when speaking of every-day affairs. Within two years, 
 please God, I shall be able to address them in their language, I 
 have interrupted all other studies to apply myself entirely to ac- 
 quire the Ottawa and Huron tongues. It was the devil himself, I 
 think, who invented the Huron language in order to exasperate 
 men ! I have good reason to hope that our Lord in his great 
 mercy will gather these poor Hurons again into the fold. The lack 
 of instruction, and drink have caused their fall. I desire to sacri- 
 fice myself entirely to the one, and perhaps I shall be able to im- 
 pede the other. Governor Simcoe is truly desirous of preventing 
 the sale of rum to the Indians, and gave me most precise orders 
 on this point. Thus backed up by the Governor, and with my 
 own strength of character, I am able to make a stout resistance to> 
 
19 
 
 the merchants of Detroit and their employees, I have succeeded 
 in this parish (Raisin River). On my arrival everyone sold liquor ; 
 now not one is selling it. Possibly fear of the Government rather 
 than ecclesiastical authority, has produced this effect. Even if 
 it be so, what does it signify ? the good is accomplished * * * 
 Alas, dear Father, the shortsightedness of the Canadians here is 
 incredible. Wayne makes them believe that the French are com- 
 ing with him to put them in possession of Detroit, and they have 
 nearly all fallen into the trap. My efforts to undeceive and save 
 them from evident ruin are almost in vain. * * * I hope 
 after a little time to have a nice church here, and a good mission. 
 This will be for someone else ; for as soon as I shall have done 
 my work here, and when a priest will be able to live easily, I shall 
 pitch my tent elsewhere, choosing always the worst place for my- 
 self. God, I trust, will supply the necessary means, I have never 
 lived more poorly, and I have never enjoyed better health than 
 since my departure from Quebec. Apparently our good Lord 
 knows that I have not time to be sick * * * Tell me, dear 
 Father, all the news both political and ecclesiastical * * * 
 Here one has need of patience and resoluteness. My part is 
 taken ; I look upon everything with perfect indifference, and I go 
 my way unheeding what any one may say. Yet I run some risk 
 of personal violence in the midst of a horde of brigands, and sans- 
 culottes." 
 
 The difficulties of the situation, as well as some of the charac- 
 teristics of Father Burke, are revealed by this letter. He encoun- 
 tered greater obstacles from the vices of the civilized, than from 
 the cruelty of the savage. His determined fight against the sale 
 of rum to the Indians made him many unscrupulous enemies, who 
 hampered him in his work. He frequently refers to the evil done 
 by the sale of liquor to the Indians, and to the opposition he met 
 with from dissolute white men more debased than the savages. 
 Hoping to realize his desire of gathering the scattered Christian 
 Indians into one village, he wrote to a chief of the Poutawatomis 
 as follows : 
 
20 
 
 My son : I have already written to the Christian Poutawatomis 
 of St. Joseph's, asking them to send me two of their chiefs, or 
 other confidential persons, from whom I could learn the best 
 means of gathering together the flock of our Lord, now scattered 
 in the forests, and of bringing them back to the fold. The mes- 
 senger told me that I would see them at the end of the last moon ; 
 they have not come ; therefore I write to you again by one of your 
 tribe, who will tell you how I desire to see you all, or at least to 
 hear from you. I beseech you not to listen to the evil birds that 
 pass your way, and who endeavour to lead you fro.m God, by turn- 
 ing you from your religion and the obedience you owe to the pas- 
 tors of the Church. I beg you to assemble your tribe, and to 
 earnestly recommend them to be obedient to God, to observe his 
 commandments, and to offer their prayers to the Father of mer- 
 cies that he may send them a pastor according to his heart, to lead 
 them in the way of salvation. Peradventure he may listen to and 
 grant their petition. - On my part I shall do all I can ; but the 
 success of my efforts is in the hands of God, who disposes all 
 things according to his good will and pleasure. I have many 
 things to say to you, if I could see one of your people. The 
 bearer of this letter is not a Christian ; I wish he were, for he 
 appears to be well disposed. I am, my son, with all sincerity, 
 your father in God, ED. BURKE, V.G. of Upper Canada. 
 
 Like St. Paul, Father Burke had to encounter dangers from false 
 brethren, and to be calumniated by them. He sends the Bishop 
 a copy of a letter, signed by two persons, and written to thwart his 
 efforts on behalf of the Indians. As a specimen of the weapons 
 employed against the truth, we quote : 
 
 " My companions : you know, I have always spoken to you as a 
 brother, and that on this accasion I am incapable of lying. There- 
 fore I assure you that he who writes to you is neither a French- 
 man nor a priest : he is a scoundrel who has been chosen by the 
 English to deceive and blind you, as Mckie has always done. 
 Believe me ; do not listen to him ; for he should be strung on a gib- 
 bet rather than raised on an altar to say mass. I await you here 
 with the canoes," &c. 
 
21 
 
 In a lenghty letter to the Bishop of Quebec, from Detroit, Au- 
 gust 28th, 1795, he gives the names, and describes the attempts 
 made by his enemies to stir up the Indians against himself, and 
 the representatives of the Government. Happily the Indians did 
 not believe the infamous lies spread abroad regarding him, and 
 laughed at those who sought to raise a revolt. Eight, however, of 
 his enemies came to Raisin River on a Friday, well armed, and 
 well charged with rum. We will let Father Buike describe the 
 rest : " They passed Saturday in drinking, and on Sunday, half 
 drunk, armed, and in a fury, they came to the church. By good 
 fortune Reaume (he was one whom they sought to injure) was ab- 
 sent, and the weather being inclement the good inhabitants had 
 not come to Mass. Hence I was alone at the mercy of this band 
 of desperadoes. It was an unpleasant predicament; but by God's 
 help I did not lose presence of mind By force of reasoning with 
 much gentleness, and after having endured many harsh words, 
 especially from one named Panis, a partisan of Navarre's, I quieted 
 them all. They heard mass in silence, and went away without 
 noise * * * It was the special Providence of God that 
 saved my life. Thy Providence, O, Father, governs all things ! 
 I am not yet out of danger, however * * * I am obliged to 
 sleep on the floor out of the range of the windows. The howl- 
 ings of the wolves, however, frighten only mercenaries ; I go my 
 way as calmly as if nothing had happensd. The greater number 
 of my people, and some who had been away from the sacraments 
 for several years, performed their Easter duty : that is my conso- 
 ation ! " 
 
 In this same letter he says he has received a pension of fifty 
 pounds a year. He finds, however, that Raisin River is not a suit- 
 able place of abode for a missionary, and like a prudent general 
 purposes to change his plan of action. He says : " If your lord- 
 ship will kindly send me the two missionaries for whom I have 
 asked, and withdraw Rev. Mr. Dufaux, I shall place two priests 
 at L'Assomption (Sandwich), and two at Detroit. We will give 
 missions in our turn at Big Rock to the Hurons, who have all re- 
 turned, and have commenced to build a church, and at Raisin 
 
22 
 
 River where I have completed a presbytery, and where I shall 
 build a church, with the help of our good God. There are also 
 several new hamlets with a dozen, twenty, or thirty houses, at Riv- 
 iere a la Tranche (now Thames River. Ont), Huron River, and 
 The Mines, to which a priest should be sent from time to time, to 
 keep alive the faith and to administer the sacraments * # * J 
 have received an answer from the Poutawatomis of St. Joseph's. 
 Two of their chiefs came to see me, and I promised to visit them 
 to baptize their children, and to keep them as well as possible in 
 the faith, until such time as God in his mercy shall provide for 
 their instruction. 
 
 " I beg your lordship to send a priest to live with me misit 
 illos binos et binos he sent them two by two. Always in danger, 
 now from the Indians, now from the sans culottes, and without the 
 grace of the sacraments causes me uneasiness." 
 
 In a letter of 5th October, 1795, he gives further details regard- 
 ing the disturbed state of the country, and the great evils arising 
 from the sale of liquor to the Indians. One of his great objects 
 was to stamp out that traffic ; another was to prevent the Cana- 
 dians from mingling with the Indians. He had the consolation 
 of seeing the Hurons returning to the practice of their religion. 
 He baptized sixty children under seven years of age among them. 
 Notwithstanding the dangers and difficulties of the place, seeing it 
 to be desirable, he resolved to pass ^the winter again at Raisin 
 River. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 OTHER CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 HE Missionary must needs be a bold and fearless man, 
 resourceful in council, and prompt in action. He must 
 not be wedded to theories, nor enamoured of any fad. 
 The rugged physical vigour of a Hebrew prophet, and the stern 
 asceticism of St. John the Baptist, must be his; but they should be 
 hidden beneath gentleness of manner, and geniality of conversa- 
 tion. Within God's law he is to be " all things to all men," in 
 order to " win all to Christ." Architect and builder, collector 
 and dispenser of funds, priest, catechist, schoolmaster these and 
 various other roles must be played by him who devotes his life to 
 the service of missionary work. Obedience, too, must set her seal 
 on his conduct. It is no easy task to combine these varied quali- 
 fications ; for in the development of courageousness and self-re- 
 liance, gentleness is in danger of being crushed out ; and the neces- 
 sity of frequently and promptly deciding in cases of emergency, is 
 calculated to engender and foster a spirit of independence at vari- 
 ance with the obligations of sacerdotal obedience. We have seen 
 how zeal for souls, and many of the qualities just enumerated 
 shine in Father Burke. His gentleness, too, was partially revealed; 
 but the following extracts from his letters will manifest it more 
 fully. Writing in October, 1795 to a missionary with whose zeal 
 and manner of action he as superior of the missions, was not 
 satisfied, says : 
 
 " You are aware, my brother, that we should all be co-labourers 
 in the Vineyard of our Lord with the obligation of helping one 
 another. ' Let each bear the other's load, and thus you will ful- 
 fil the law of Christ.' I cannot help avowing that I have not been 
 able to perceive in your conduct any zeal to console us in our 
 trials and tribulations ; that your affected silence whilst the ravag- 
 
24 
 
 ing wolves were devouring the Lord's flock, has given me much 
 dissatisfaction and pain. Whilst the emissaries of Satan are aiding 
 one another to advance their work of iniquity, is it permitted to 
 the minister's of the Lord, the God of Peace and Union, that 
 some should be idle, or indifferent, whilst others are being hard 
 pressed by the common enemy ? Let us henceforth act in con- 
 cert ; let us unite our forces to advance God's work ; let the past 
 be forgotten. Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia.. 
 
 In a letter to the Bishop he relates that this same missionary 
 came to see him, and wanted an explanation of almost every line 
 of a letter of instruction sent him. " I answered him mildly for a 
 time, but at length said the letter is written in French, you have 
 only to interpret it according to the rules of common sense." Few 
 will think that a harsh saying, under the circumstances, yet Father 
 Burke, adds : " This, I avow, was not sufficiently mild ; I was sorry 
 tor it, and asked his pardon." . 
 
 Writing to his bishop from Detroit on 5th November, 1795, he 
 says : 
 
 " I have made a resolution not to do anything in this difficult 
 mission without the approbation of your lordship. Left as I am to 
 myself without any one to advise me, should I by any misfortune 
 fail in my duty, I shall have in the wisdom of your lordship a real 
 help ; and in order that you may have full knowledge of the country 
 and its needs, I shall give you a general idea of what I know has 
 taken place." He then enters into a lengthy explanation of the dis- 
 content and jealousy which prevailed when he first arrived, and of 
 the strained relations between Mr. Baby, lieutenant of the coun- 
 ty, and the Commander of the fort. He speaks of the difficulties of 
 the situation by reason of the corruption of the old wood ran- 
 gers, and the traffic in liquor. He points out the necessity of his 
 being at Niagara during the session of parliament to safeguard the 
 interests of religion ; and remarks that the augmentation of his al- 
 lowance from government, which he confidently expects would en- 
 able him to spend some time in Kingston, until a missionary is 
 permanently settled there. He makes various suggestions for the 
 consideration of the bishop regarding the future. 
 
25 
 
 His lordship did not adopt these suggestions, for in a letter of 
 June yth, 1 796, written at Detroit, Father Burke, with true priestly 
 obedience and humility, writes : " I find that your lordship's views 
 do not at all accord with mine. But as the Holy Ghost has placed 
 you to guide the flock, and consequently, to you he has given the 
 lights necessary to lead it in the way of salvation, I feel assured that 
 I shall not be mistaken in following your advice. The foolish con- 
 duct of the people of these districts have defeated the projects 
 which I had formed for their spiritual and temporal good, when I 
 had all the means necessary for putting them into execution as if 
 providence wished to give me a sensible proof that the plans of man 
 are unsubstantial." The country west of the Detroit river was 
 about to pass under the control of the United States. The Bishop 
 of Quebec had expressed some wish for Father Burke to remain at 
 Detroit, for he adds : " I cannot accept the mission of Detroit, for 
 your lordship can readily understand that such a step would give 
 grave displeasure to the government from whom I have received 
 every mark of good will, and would engender a well-founded dis- 
 trust of all clergymen which might have regrettable consequences 
 in the future. To day or to morrow I leave for Makinaw to secure 
 a site suitable for a church, and to St. Joseph's Island, whither the 
 fort is transported, to administer the sacraments to the poor people 
 who have been destitute of spiritual ministrations since the death of 
 Father Payet. I shall return by way of Kingston, where after hav- 
 ing examined all the circumstances of the case, if I find the interests 
 of this mission would be better promoted by handing it over to the 
 seminary of Montreal, I shall notify your lordship." 
 
 He informs the Bishop that the mission at Raisin river gave no 
 other temporal support to him during the year excepting twenty- 
 two bushels of wheat. Nevertheless, he adds, " I continue to live. 
 One finds plenty of resources in providence when one wishes to 
 follow in good faith its designs. Seek ye first the Kingdom of 
 God and its justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." 
 He also informs his lordship that he has received a papal res- 
 cript empowering him to administer the sacrament of confirma- 
 tion, with the bishop's consent, and asks for directions in the 
 
26 
 
 premises. It was through his friend Dr. Troy, of Dublin, that this 
 rescript had been obtained. From his subsequent letters it can- 
 not be learnt whether or not Bishop Hubert authorized him to 
 make use of this faculty. 
 
 For the space of nearly two years, he laboured and planned as 
 the Superior of these Western Missions, his usual place of resid- 
 ence being on what is now the United States side of Detroit river. 
 What his difficulties were, and with what zeal and courage, as well 
 asjDrudence, gentleness and obedience he laboured, are revealed 
 by the extracts we have given from his letters. But political changes 
 were impending which would entail a transfer of base for his mis- 
 sionary operations. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BACK TO CIVILIZATION. 
 
 N 1796, the conditions of the treaty made two years previously 
 between England and the United States, having been ful- 
 filled, the English troops retired from Fort Miami, which 
 together with Detroit passed under the Dominion of the United 
 States. The national boundary was no longer the Ohio river, but 
 the imaginary line across the lakes which it is to-day. Ecclesiastic- 
 ally, too, the territory in which Father Burke had laboured 
 changed jurisdiction. By an old decree the limits of the diocese 
 of Baltimore were to be co-extensive with the civil boundaries of 
 the United States. Father Burke notified the Bishop of Baltimore 
 of the imminent change, and that Prelate sent the Rev. Mr. Le- 
 Vadou to take charge of Detroit. 
 
 Father Burke was most loyal to the English Government, 
 although he was ever ready to oppose and set at naught any at- 
 tempts which it might make, either openly or covertly against his 
 faith. He had a wholesome old time dislike, too, for revolutionary 
 methods, and was shocked to learn that the new pastor of Detroit 
 had eulogized Washington one Sunday from the pulpit. Such a 
 man could not remain west of the Detroit river ; he followed the 
 British flag to its eastern bank in the early summer of 1796. His 
 last letter from Detroit is dated June 7th of that year. 
 
 On 22nd July we find him at Niagara on his way to Quebec via 
 Kingston. On August ist, he writes from Montreal to his Bishop : 
 "After a journey of twenty-five days, here we are, Mr. Frechette 
 and myself * I fear that your lordship's answer 
 
 to Lord Dorchester may cause me to lose my means of living 
 
 * * * The project of securing the community of 
 
 Montreal (that is the Sulpitians) seems an inspiration of the Holy 
 Ghost, and I shall do all that depends on me for its realization, 
 
28 
 
 and I pray your lorpship to think of it unceasingly." In the whole 
 series of his letters Father Burke has only words of praise for the 
 Sulpitian Fathers, or " gentlemen of the seminary," and he longed 
 to see them take charge of the missions of Upper Canada. We 
 shall hear his own words on this point later on. In order to ex- 
 plain the meaning of his remark to his Bishop that he feared lest 
 his lordship's answer to Lord Dorchester might injure him, we 
 subjoin the following extract from a letter to Dr. Troy, dated at 
 Quebec, August iyth, 1796. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 Yours of 3oth November, 1795, cam ^ to hand in the month of 
 February, near the Miamis, about 400 leagues westward of Que- 
 bec. 'Twas not yet decided whether we were to have war or peace 
 with our neighbours, the Yankees, and our situation there was 
 rather critical. The Canadians almost to a man were infected 
 with the new philosophy. An old miscreant who had squandered 
 a property between the brothel and the billiard table, kept a sort 
 of school to teach the young fellows that there was neither a God 
 nor a demon. I was every day in danger of being assassinated ; 
 the country in which I lived being ceded by the late treaty, I did 
 not think it proper to remain on that side. It would have given 
 great offence to the government from whom I had received every 
 mark of confidence and at whose expense I was supported. I'm 
 now in Quebec endeavoring to increase my appointment, and am 
 in hopes of succeeding. 
 
 An indiscreet answer of the Bishop to my Lord Dorchester has 
 deranged my affairs. He told the governor that 'twas uncertain 
 whether I would remain on the American side of Detroit river or 
 not. His lordship who was on the point of settling my appoint- 
 ment on a liberal scale deferred till my determination was known. 
 In the meanwhile General Prescott arrived, commander-in-chief. 
 My lord's counsellors, who were my best friends, were all thrown 
 out of place, and he himself sailed in a frigate for Europe. The 
 frigate ran aground on the Isle of Anticosti, and my lord is this 
 day with his family at some peasant's lodge in the Bay of Gaspe. 
 I have yet a good friend in General Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor 
 
29 
 
 of Upper Canada. His secretary gives me the best assurance of 
 his desire to serve me ; unfortunately he does not hold the strings 
 of the purse. 
 
 Many French clergymen, of good information, are arrived in this 
 country and were greatly wanted. I'm sorry to add that the 
 Canadians look on them with a jealous eye. In the seminary of 
 Quebec, the seat of learning here, they would not admit a man of 
 them, though they evidently want them. Their schools are unfre- 
 quented and falling into contempt, and a mean jealously prevent- 
 ed them from employing the men who would bring them into 
 repute. 
 
 I'm rejoiced to hear that government patronizes your semin- 
 aries. I wait but an answer to set off again to the upper country 
 and continue my mission. I expect the bishop will allow me 
 some clergyman to accompany me. having no ambition to die 
 without the sacraments."* 
 
 Father Burke was able to dispel any cloud of suspicion that 
 might have arisen in the minds of government officials regarding 
 his sentiments, and course of action. He was to return to Upper 
 Canada as Vicar General, and superior of the missions, but he 
 realized how sadly inadequate were the means at his disposal for 
 the proper cultivation of that vast missionary field. He was 
 Superior in name, but hampered in action by a restriction of 
 authority. He saw one hope for the evangelization of the land 
 and he laboured to realize it. A sufficient number of true mission- 
 aries was of prime necessity ; so, also was a certain amount of 
 temporal wealth to meet the requirements of the poorer districts. 
 The community of the Sulpitians possessed both men and means, 
 and moreover were ready to undertake the work. The Bishop's 
 consent alone was required, and to obtain that Father Burke for- 
 warded to his lordship the following memorial. As in all his 
 letters so in this memorial his zeal and disinterestedness are appar- 
 ent. He saw the harvest ripening, and felt his own inability, from 
 lack both of men and pecuniary resources to garner it successfully. 
 
 "(Arch. Hal.) 
 3 
 
30 
 
 He had no petty ambition of being the chief personage in the 
 field ; no sordid love of gain ; no mean jealousy of the success of 
 other workers. He surveys the ground ; grasps its requirements ; 
 maps out a course, and is willing to leave the glory of its success- 
 ful issue to others. 
 
 MEMORIAL TO BISHOP HUBERT. 
 
 " That your memorialist having attentively examined the local 
 situation of the province of Upper Canada and the rapid pro- 
 gress of its population under the protection of a most vigilant and 
 enlightened government, giving equal liberty to Catholics and 
 sectaries of all denominations, having also considered the advan- 
 tages which must arise from the establishment of solid and per- 
 manent missions in the chief places of resort, and the want of 
 resources in the present infant state of these for the support of 
 missionaries is convinced of the necessity of calling in the assist- 
 ance of some religious community. 
 
 Your memorialist begs leave to represent to your lordship that 
 the community of St. Sulpice appears to him, under every possi- 
 ble point of view, the most eligible ; its principles are purely 
 Catholic ; it possesses the means, has avowed its readiness to co- 
 incide with your lordship's views ; is in the confidence of govern- 
 ment, or at least is not an object of jealousy. 
 
 Your memorialist moreover most numbly represents to your 
 lordship that a mission of three priests living in community at the 
 Assumption is of the last importance : one to attend constantly to 
 the instruction of that extensive and populous settlement, another 
 to perform service on Sundays and holidays for the Canadians and 
 Christian Indians at the new post of Maiden, and a third to go 
 annually, immediately after the opening of the navigation to the 
 post of St. Joseph and falls of St. Mary, where an immense number 
 of Canadians employed in the fur trade meet and pass a month or 
 two ; and on his return to go from time to time to chenal icarti and 
 the River Tranch to attend to the instructions and other spiritual 
 wants of the people scattered in those quarters. 
 
31, 
 
 Your memorialist also most humbly represents to your lord- 
 ship the absolute necessity of' two priests living in community 
 either at Kingston or Niagara, the one constantly at the place of 
 residence, and the other to go occasionally and spend at least 
 three months in the year at the other place. 
 
 Your memorialist finally begs leave to remark that a mission of 
 the sisters of the congregation consisting of two or three at the 
 least, beyond the meridian of life, under the direction of the 
 chief priest of that mission, with a power of admitting any well- 
 qualified woman into their order would be of manifest utility at 
 the Assumption, and your memorialist is humbly of opinion that 
 resources may be found in that country for their support. 
 
 From your lordship's zeal for the glory of Christ, and the 
 spiritual interest of his flock, your memorialist has every reason to 
 hope a favorable attention to these his most humble representa- 
 tions, and that your lordship will take the most speedy and 
 effectual measures with the community of St. Sulpice to reduce 
 them to practice, and your memorialist will ever pray * * * 
 
 Accompanying this memorial was a letter to the bishop dated 
 at Soulange, 26th September, 1796, in which he says : " Mr. Bras- 
 sier in the name of the seminary has proposed to me to establish 
 missions in Upper Canada, with your lordship's consent ; and 
 added that the seminary is disposed to make all necessary efforts 
 for that purpose, even to the bringing of subjects from Europe * 
 * * I see no obstacle to the accomplishment of this project, 
 save the personal interest of Mr. Dufaux (the priest in charge of 
 L' Assumption). To this I reply that when it is a question of the 
 general good of religion, the interest of no individual whomso- 
 ever should enter into the calculation. Moreover, your lordship 
 has many other places in the diocese which would amply compen- 
 sate him." 
 
 Death quickly removed what Father Burke considered the only 
 obstacle to the consummation of his desire. Writing from Kingston 
 3rd October, on his way to Sandwich, he says : he has just heard 
 of the death of Mr. Dufaux from a man named Pratt who was on 
 his way to Quebec with letters for the bishop. He advises his lord- 
 
32 
 
 ship to be on his guard as he suspects the man goes on purpose to- 
 deceive him. If his lordship approves of his project relative to the 
 Sulpitians, he begs him to arrange with the Seminary so that two 
 priests may come up the following spring ; he would live with them r 
 and anything remaining " over and above their support he would 
 use, together with all the compontnda, on behalf of the mission of 
 Kingston." 
 
 October 25th, he writes : " My lord, here I am after almost end- 
 less delays at Chippawa. I had the good fortune to obtain a large 
 lot at Niagara, and another at York (Toronto), two permanent es- 
 tablishments. I shall willingly cede these lands to the seminary, 
 but the buildings must be erected by it. I have not yet drawn my 
 large lot ot land, as I am waiting until the location of the Capital 
 shall. have been decided on." 
 
 Like a skillful general he was studying the field as he journeyed 
 onward, and selecting suitable sites as centres for future operations. 
 
 November 2nd, 1796, he writes from L'Assomption : " My lord. 
 I had the honour to write to your lordship from Chippawa ; that 
 same day I reached Fort Erie, and two days after the mouth of the 
 Detroit River an almost marvelous feat and on the Vigil of All 
 Saints I arrived at L'Assomption. If your 
 
 lordship will send me two Sulpitian Fathers according to my pro- 
 posed plan, I shall open at once a school. All are pleased at this 
 proposal, and I have no doubt some good subjects would be found. 
 There is need of a house for two missionaries at Niagara, it is the 
 most suitable place, and I have given orders to buy a plot of ground 
 for 150 or 2co pounds. I know not where I shall find the money, 
 but God's providence will provide. If this place will aftord me a 
 maintainance, I shall apply all my salary from government towards 
 the purchase, and thus I shall accomplish my design." 
 
 From Maiden he wrote on January 29th, 1797, a long letter to 
 the Bishop detailing the difficulties of the situation, and the dissen- 
 sions existing both between the French Canadians and the English, 
 and among the French themselves. A new set of laws had been 
 promulgated for Upper Canada, and against some of these a por- 
 tion of the French Canadians were protesting, urged on, it would 
 
33 
 
 .appear by their brethern on the west of Detroit River. Father 
 Burke's voice and influence were ever on the side of law and order. 
 He recognized that the laws, though differing from those of Lower 
 Canada, were good in themselves, and hence he strove to have 
 them observed. The winter passed, spring came, and as no mis- 
 sionaries had arrived, he went once more to Quebec to plead the 
 cause he had at heart. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 STATEMENT OF MISSIONS SENT TO ROME. 
 
 N the August of 1797, Father Burke writes from Quebec to 
 Archbishop Troy that the recall of Lord Dorchester had been 
 disadvantageous to him, but as he had a friend in Lieu- 
 tenant Governor Simcoe, his allowance had been increased so as to 
 enable him to live. He then continues : "I am forced to tell your 
 Grace that the poor Irish and Scotch, though numerous, are totally 
 neglected by the Canadian clergy. In the towns of Quebec and 
 Montreal, where there are numbers of them, they are destitute of 
 every sort of instruction, A Mr. Saulnier in Montreal, a zealous 
 and able missionary, 'tis true, attends to them in the best manner 
 he can. The Upper Province in which I am stationed is peopled 
 with them, and 'tis of absolute necessity that schools be estab- 
 lished for their instruction, and clergymen brought from Ireland 
 until they can be formed here in the province. There is but one 
 parish in this immense tract of country, inhabited by Canadians 
 (that is, French Canadians). If it be just to sacrifice the salva- 
 tion of thousands to a handful of the most ignorant and impudent 
 fellows that I ever knew, your Grace will determine. The gentle- 
 man of St. Sulpice, in the seminary of Montreal, agreed with me 
 to undertake the mission of the whole province, and to procure 
 some missionaries from Ireland, if I could obtain the bishop's 
 consent. I wrote him a strong memorial on that subject. He 
 was content, but declined terminating the business, I believe to 
 avoid jealousies. I have now come three hundred .leagues to ex- 
 postulate with him, and find him unfortunately attacked with a 
 melancholy which renders him incapable of business. I have no 
 hopes from his coadjutor, and have, of course, sent a relation and 
 
35 
 
 memorial to the Prefect of the Propaganda. A community is 
 absolutely necessary to carry on this mission."* 
 
 A few days later he wrote to the same Prelate, enclosing his 
 statement of the missions to be forwarded to Propaganda. In 
 this he alludes again to the zeal of the Sulpitians, and their ability 
 and readiness to establish missions in the Upper Province. He 
 contrasts them with the Canadian clergymen, much to the disad- 
 vantage of the latter, and adds : " Your Grace can't conceive with 
 what sorrow and indignation I saw the seminary of Quebec, though 
 destitute of subjects, refuse to admit two men, a Mr. Gazet and a 
 Mr. Desjardins, who would do honour to any house. Poor Gazet 
 is now in London, the other man is yet here, but without employ- 
 ment * * * Being upon good terms with the. government, 
 I have obtained an acre of land in each of the new towns, and a 
 lot of twelve hundred acres besides, upon which it will be easy to 
 found missions, and which I intend to transfer to the community 
 of St. Sulpice, if I can procure them for the missions. I myself 
 have no funds to build, being obliged to live on my appointments 
 from government, having no ecclesiastical revenue."* 
 
 From the Archives of Propaganda we have obtained a copy of 
 .the report on the state of the missions, of which Father Burke 
 speaks in the letter just cited. It is dated Quebec. i5th August, 
 1797, and is addressed to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda. 
 He tells how at the request of Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, the 
 Bishop of Quebec sent him in 1794 to Raisin River. His powers 
 though apparently ample, were in fact rendered illusory by a clause 
 inserted at the end. The banks of the river " are inhabited by 
 about one hundred Canadian families, baptized indeed in the 
 Catholic Church, but wicked men given to every vice, but espe- 
 cially to drunkness and sins against nature. Scarcely can you find 
 a girl ot ten years that has not suffered violence." At a distance 
 of thirteen leagues from the mouth of the river, there were two set- 
 tlements, peopled by the descendants of wood rangers, a " bad 
 race of men, worse than the savages themselves." He tells us war 
 
 *Arc. Hal. 
 
36 
 
 was at that time (1794) raging between the United States and the 
 Indians, that the English Government favoured the latter, supply- 
 ing arms and food, that nearly all the French Canadians in that 
 part were favourable to the Republic. He relates his subsequent 
 attempts to secure the services of the Sulpitian Fathers, and how 
 he had now come to Quebec to lay this matter, as well as other 
 difficulties that impeded his work, personally before the bishop, 
 but found him so broken in health as to be unfit for business. He 
 then continues : " He (Bishop Hubert) appears resolved to trans- 
 fer the burden of the episcopate to his coadjutor ; to this latter 
 an assistant will be at once assigned by the Governor General. I 
 know not who he may be, but it is much to be feared that he may 
 be'unsuitable, having only this one merit, that of being acceptable 
 to the Governor General. There are in the diocese some most 
 worthy men, among whom are conspicuous Messrs. LeRoux, 
 Saulnier and Desjardins, natives of France. 5 ' He points out to 
 the Holy See the abuses which might easily arise, should an ambi- 
 tious and unprincipled man he appointed through the influence of 
 the Governor General. The danger was a very real one, when we 
 consider all the circumstances of the country. Father Burke was 
 not content with pointing it out ; his practical mind suggested the 
 means best adapted to avert a calamity from that source. He 
 says : " There is no remedy for this imminent evil except the erec- 
 tion of Montreal into an Episcopal See. As at present constituted 
 the diocese of Quebec is most vast in extent, running from the 
 mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Pacific; and no bishop who 
 ever was, or is, or will be, could properly attend to its wants. 
 Right reason demands that over the country east of the eastern 
 boundary of Lower Canada (viz., the Maritime Provinces), which 
 is peopled by English, Scotch and Irish, and their descendants, 
 with a few French, an Apostolic Missionary speaking the English 
 language should be appointed." The diocese of Quebec should, 
 in his v^ew, be limited to that part of the Province which is east of 
 Three Rivers j the remainder of Lower Canada to constitute the 
 new Diocese of Montreal. Speaking of the Sulpitians in Montreal 
 he says : " In their congregation are men of great learning, and of 
 
37 
 
 marked zeal for the glory of God and the good of their neighbour ; 
 eloquent in speech they have, within the three years that have 
 elapsed since their arrrival, restored in this city religion that was 
 shaken to its foundations and almost uprooted. If one of these 
 were made bishop, and another given him as coadjutor, so chat the 
 office should be annexed to the congregation, a flourishing church 
 would soon be seen instead of one sapped at its roots, and tremb- 
 ling on its foundations. If human intelligence can avail the erec- 
 tion of this diocese is not merely useful, it is altogether necessary." 
 
 He points out that the obstacles to this plan, whether coming 
 from the clergy, the government, or the bishop, could be easily 
 overcome. 
 
 Regarding the missions of Upper Canada, of which he was then 
 Superior, he deems it a matter of necessity, for many reasons, to 
 withdraw them from the jurisdiction of Quebec. With the excep- 
 tion of the French settlement at Sandwich, the " whole country, 
 he writes, from Lake Huron to the boundary of Lower Canada, 
 is inhabited by English, Scotch and Irish. * * * A few 
 Catholics are scattered amongst them, and in one place there are 
 two hundred Scotch families who came hither from the mountains 
 of Scotland a few years ago. All these speak either English or 
 Gaelic. Hence a Scotch or Irish priest is required for them." 
 
 For the conversion of the Indians and the spreading of the 
 true faith amongst the civilized, he believes a congregation to be 
 more suited than secular priests ; the members of the former 
 would be more immediately under the eyes of their superiors, where- 
 as secular priests would be hundreds of leagues lemoved from the 
 observation of the bishop. He then renews his humble supplica- 
 tion that the Holy See would empower him to hand over the 
 missions of Upper Canada to the congregation of Saint Sulpice, 
 and that the missions and Congregation might be immediately de- 
 pendent on the Holy See. 
 
 This remarkable document written in clear and vigorous, if not 
 always classic Latin, shows us how conscientiously Father Burke 
 had studied the situation, and how fully he had thought out his 
 plans for the exaltation of religion. It is idle now, perhaps, to 
 
38 
 
 speculate on what might have been, had his far-seeing policy been 
 pursued. What a brighter page might the ecclesiastical history of 
 Ontario and that of the Maritime Provinces have been, had the 
 incubus of centralization at Quebec been removed at that early 
 day. But owing to the troubled state of affairs in Europe during 
 the subsequent years the Holy See was unable to take action in 
 the premises. The congregation of Propaganda however made a 
 careful synopsis of this document in their transactions, inscribing 
 it Pro Memoria, with a view no doubt to utilize it at no distant 
 day. The wording of the synopsis clearly manifests how fully the 
 congregation was impressed by Father Burke's reasoning. But 
 the turmoils of war, the imprisonment of Pius VII, the dispersion 
 of the Cardinals, delayed for twenty years the realization of even 
 a small portion of his plan. The day, nevertheless, was to come, 
 albeit he would not witness it in the flesh, when his scheme would 
 be adopted almost in its entirety.. In the meantime having conclud- 
 ed his business in Quebec, and forwarded, through Archbishop 
 Troy, his " Statement of the Missions " to Rome, he retraced the 
 way by lake and forest path to the Upper Province. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FOUR BUSY YEARS. 
 
 ^SUCCESSFUL in making his views prevail relative to 
 intrusting the missions of Upper Canada to the congre- 
 gation of St. Sulpice, Father Burke did not discard 
 them, however. For nearly four years after the date of his last 
 letter to Archbishop Troy, quoted above, he laboured almost single 
 handed in the Province of Ontario. The French Canadians in 
 Essex County had their resident priest at Sandwich, but the Irish 
 and Scotch Catholics ever increasing in number, and the many 
 Catholic soldiers were not so well supplied with spiritual attend- 
 ance. To meet in some degree their wants Father Burke multi- 
 plied himself by passing from Niagara to Kingston, to Cataraqui, 
 to York, and various other centres. Without doubt he has the 
 honour of being the Apostle of English speaking Ontario, and the 
 founder of its oldest missions. lie secured land for church pur- 
 poses, celebrated mass, administered the sacraments and preached 
 the word of God in what are now the busy centres of industrial and 
 commercial life in the Province of Ontario. 
 
 In the summer of 1798 he went to Montreal again. Bishop 
 Hubert was now dead, and his former coadjutor Mgr. Denault had 
 succeeded him. According to the then prevailing custom in Que- 
 bec the new bishop had already a coadjutor ; this was none other 
 than Joseph Octave Plessis, who, later on, was destined to play an 
 important part in the history of the church in Canada. Whilst he 
 had been a priest Father Burke had written to him from the far 
 west; he now addresses a letter to him as his superior, on i6th 
 July, 1798. In it he reminds him of his memorial presented to 
 Bishop Hubert, and informs him that the gentlemen of the semin- 
 ary are prepared to open a mission at Cataraqui, or elsewhere as 
 the bishop may desire. How urgently missionaries were required 
 
40 
 
 in Upper Canada, and how completely justified Father Burke was 
 in his representations of its spiritual destitution, may be gleaned 
 from a letter written at Niagara on i3th September, 1798, to Mgr. 
 Plessis : " Here I am at Niagara instead of having carried out my 
 original design of going on to Detroit, thence returning to Kings- 
 ton to pass the winter. The commander of the garrison, annoyed 
 by the continual complaints of the civic officials against the Catho- 
 lic soldiers, who used to frequent the taverns during the hours of 
 service on Sundays, gave orders that officers and men should attend 
 the Protestant service. They had attended for three consecutive 
 Sundays when I represented to the commander the iniquity of this 
 order. He replied that he would send them to mass if the chap- 
 lain was there, and he thought it very extraordinary that whilst a 
 chaplain was paid by the King for the battalion instead of attend- 
 ing to his duty he should be in charge of a mission, his men were 
 without religious services, and his sick were dying without the sac- 
 raments. You see therefore, that I have reason for stopping short 
 at Niagara for we must not permit four companies, of whom three- 
 fourths both of officers and men are Catholics, to frequent the Pro- 
 testant church. There is a similar order at Cataraqui where the 
 soldiers and sailors are absolutely without spiritual help. I pray 
 you therefore to send Mr. Duval at once to his post, or some one 
 to replace him ; for good sense as well as religion is shocked at see- 
 ing a man neglecting a duty for which he is paid by the govern- 
 ment ; and people born in the bosom of the church losing every 
 principle of religion by reason of this neglect." 
 
 This is a scathing rebuke, but in view of the situation not unde- 
 served. He saw the pressing needs ; he pointed them out ; he 
 suggested opportune remedies. Not having a free hand he could 
 do no more except to redouble his own exertions. This he con- 
 tinued to do. 
 
 Although uncompromisingly opposed to the meddling of gov- 
 ernment in ecclesiastical affairs, he was nevertheless its strong sup- 
 porter in civil matters, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of 
 the highest officials. As the country increased in population, and 
 new centres of life were formed, his labours were augmented, and 
 
41 
 
 he had little time for letter writing. One last letter we must 
 notice, however, ere we pass on to the scene of his labours in the 
 east of Canada. On the 25th February, 1800, he wrote from 
 York : " I have come here to see a poor fellow who is to be 
 hanged to-morrow. I shall go, God willing, to Windham to visit 
 the French who are there. Vallier with his wife and children are 
 here * * * The Pope is dead : has a successor been ap- 
 pointed ? Who is he ? Will we have a jubilee this year ? We 
 have great need of it." He then refers to the celebrated Indian 
 Chief Joseph Brandt, who for nearly fifty years had fought the 
 battles of England, in the United States and Canada, and whose 
 son, thirteen years later, led his braves against the invader on 
 Queenston heights. He says : " The famous Brandt, chief of the 
 Mohawks, says he is a Catholic, and has told the governor who 
 has spoken ot it to me. The governor looks on this as a species 
 of threat on the part of Brandt ; nevertheless he has promised 
 him a missionary in case the village should wish it. They were 
 formerly Protestants ; for some years they have not had a minister, 
 if you except a brave fellow who goes once or twice a year a 
 He-Goat they say. The Indians are not greatly edified by this, 
 and have erected a badly-made idol. A man of Brandt's family 
 called Cut Nose is its priest and protector. Brandt himself has 
 spoken to me two or three times, and has requested me to recom- 
 mend his son to the seminary, and to ask the professors to instruct 
 him in the Catholic religion, so that he might be able to rule his 
 village and bring them all to the faith in time. I strongly recom- 
 mend him to you. The young Indian can read and write in Eng- 
 lish ; he is desirous of learning a little Latin and French." 
 
 We can see from this what a factor Father Burke was in the 
 social and civil life of the country, and what tantalizing possibili- 
 ties for good were presented to his keen vision. But, owing to 
 his lack of power, he had the regret of seeing them remain 
 mere possibilities. In the semi military state of society then 
 existing in Ontario, there were many abuses. Against these 
 Father Burke waged unceasing war, and endeavoured to stem the 
 tide of evil. But the just man is not free from trials, nor safe 
 
42 
 
 from calumny. In the spring of 1801. when, on account of the 
 ague from which he occasionally suffered, he was meditating a 
 trip to Quebec, he had to endure the mortification of false accu- 
 sations, the baselessness of which he was able to show. At the 
 end of May he arrived in Montreal. For seven years he had 
 laboured in the west ; meanwhile events had been so shaping 
 themselves in Nova Scotia that the hour had sounded, when, in 
 God's providence, the clear head, strong arm and faithful heart 
 of Father Burke were to be consecrated to the service of the old- 
 est church in Canada, 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN ACADIA. 
 
 EFORE we take up the story of the life and labours of 
 Father Burke in Halifax, some brief notes on the rise 
 and vicissitudes of the Church in Acadia, or Nova 
 Scotia, appear to be indispensible to an intelligent ap- 
 preciation of his work, and to a correct knowledge of the position 
 which the Church of this province holds in the religious history of 
 North America. Only broad outlines will be traced, since this is 
 rather a biography than a history. Just ideas of men who have 
 done their part on the shifting scene of a nation's history can only 
 be had by considering them in relation to the conditions which 
 preceded, as well as to those which were co-eval with them. Con- 
 ventional standards subsequent to their time, or customs foreign to 
 their country, are not to be quoted as condemnatory of their ac- 
 tions. History must be read with the eyes of the past, arid judg- 
 ments recorded by its light. 
 
 In studying the history of the church in Acadia, the student 
 meets on the very threshold, an historical fact which revolutionizes 
 his ideas, and destroys pretentious that have been long upheld on 
 a basis of chronological inaccuracy. From frequent repetition it 
 has become an unquestioned dictum that Quebec is the oldest 
 city, and its church the first founded, in North America, outside 
 the Spanish colonies. And yet in Nova Scotia the first town was 
 built, and the first church raised to the Almighty. Although the 
 true faith thus early enkindled on our shores, suffered many per- 
 secutions and trials, it was never extinguished ; it has come down 
 to us with an unbroken continuity, from a period which antedates 
 the arrival of the first priest in Quebec by nearly eleven years. 
 The history of those centuries is romantic and fascinating, but it 
 is outside the scope of these Memoirs. Some gifted pen will one 
 
44 
 
 day make known to an astonished world its chivalry and its glory, 
 the heroic devotion of its missionaries, and the beautiful Christian 
 lives of the simple Acadians, who first exercised the arts of civiliza- 
 tion in the valley of Annapolis. It will tell too how the red man, 
 the original lord of Nova Scotia, received with docility the gospel 
 from zealous priests nearly three hundred years ago, preserved its 
 truths with fidelity in days of trial and sore temptation, and how 
 they sing to-day in their soft tongue the sacred canticles of the 
 church, which their forefathers chanted centuries ago in the pine 
 groves of Acadia, or by the laughing waters of the Sissiboo, and 
 the Shubenacadie. We shall merely outline the succession. 
 
 In 1604, Rev. Nicholas Aubry and another priest arrived with De 
 Monts, and his first settlers on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. 
 Soon Port Royal, now Annapolis, was founded, an altar set up, 
 the Holy Sacrifice offered, and the mission of the church begun. 
 As already noted, this was eleven years before the first priest had 
 come to Quebec, and four or five before the first attempt to found 
 that city. These dates are important, and settle beyond dispute 
 the priority of Nova Scotia's rights, to be called the mother of 
 religion and civilization, on almost the whole of this continent. 
 
 In 1610, Rev. Jesse Fleche or Fleuche, came to Port Royal; he 
 it was whom the Indians first called Patlias, meaning Patriarch, a 
 name which the Micmacs still give to every priest. He it was who 
 baptized the Indian chief Mambertou,* renowned in story and 
 nearly two hundred of his people. 
 
 Thus the church in Nova Scotia was first in the missionary 
 field, always excepting the Spanish.! 
 
 * Purchas in "Pilgrims" 2nd edit. Book VIII (1617), says in his quaint 
 style : " Membertou carried at his neck the mark of his profession, which was 
 a purse, triangle-wise covered with their imbrodered worke, within which there 
 was somewhat as bigge as a nut, which he said was his divell, called Aoutem. 
 This function is successive, and by tradition they teach the eldest son the mys- 
 erie of this iniquilie." 
 
 t Not merely did priests come to minister to the Christian colonists, but also 
 to propagate the gospel among the heathen. This missionary work continued 
 until all the Indians were brought to the knowledge of the truth. 
 
45 
 
 In 1611 two Jesuit Fathers, Biard and Masse, came to culti- 
 vate the new missionary field. The young colony was unfortu- 
 nately divided in opinion, and dissensions did not fail to arise. 
 With these we have nothing to do. 
 
 It may be observed, however, that want of patient research, and 
 the bias of party, have magnified and distorted the not unnatural 
 differences likely to arise in any similar attempt at colonization.. 
 That the settlement was steadily prospering, and its trade with 
 France increasing, is beyond dispute. 
 
 In the spring of 1613 a shipload of colonists arrived at Port 
 Royal, Father Quentin, S. J., and Brother DuThet were of the 
 number. The vessel that had brought them continued her voyage,, 
 after having taken aboard Father Biard, S.J., and some others, ta 
 Saint Sauveur, in the mouth of the Pentagoet, now Saint Croix 
 river. A small fort had been previously built at another point on 
 the shore of the Bay of Fundy. 
 
 Our children are taught that Port Royal was " taken " in 1613, 
 the impression being conveyed that a battle took place between 
 the English and French forces. As a matter of fact, the two na- 
 tions were at peace. Notwithstanding this, in the summer of 1613, 
 Samuel Argall, with a party of marauders from Virginia, coasting 
 northward, heard of these French stations. Without further ado 
 he attacked the small band at St. Sauveur. Amongst others Bro- 
 ther DuThet was killed ; the two Jesuit Fathers, with a dozen or 
 more of the new colonists, were sent to Virginia, whence after 
 much suffering, several of them got back to France. Argall then 
 sailed for Port Royal, which he found unguarded and unmanned. 
 Not suspecting an enemy in time of peace, the colonists were till- 
 ing their fields some miles distant up the river. It was an easy 
 victory, if not a noble act, to set fire to Port Royal, and carry off 
 whatever value it contained. Charles de Biencourt, son of 
 Poutrincourt, in the absence of his father, was commander of the 
 place. Seeing the smoke he hurried to the Fort, but too late. His 
 unarmed followers could not cope with the doers of the dastardly 
 deed. A few of them were carried off, it is said, but certainly 
 4 
 
46 
 
 young Biencourt with the vast majority remained in the country. 
 In November Argall sailed from Port Royal for Virginia. 
 
 Nearly all writers who have treated this subject have fallen 
 into the error of believing that with the burning of Port Royal the 
 French settlement was broken up. Hence they speak of what had 
 been done as an unsuccessful attempt at colonization ; not reali- 
 zing that ArgalPs action, whilst undoubtedly a severe blow to the 
 young colony, no more broke the continuity of its life and civil 
 history, than did the sack of Rome by Brennus destroy that of the 
 eternal city. A little patient investigation would have shown 
 this ; but then the fiction of Quebec's antiquity, and the riority 
 of its church would have been upset. We do not in this impute 
 dishonesty to any writer. There were many reasons on the surface 
 for accepting this view, The Jesuit Fathers, who have supplied 
 the ground-work for so much of the history of North America, are 
 largely responsible for its birth. The two fathers who had been 
 taken at St. Sauveur and sent to Virginia, returned to France. 
 They had witnessed the destruction of their own station, and had 
 heard, on Argall's return to Virginia, of the sack of Port Royal. 
 They concluded all had been blotted out, and so set it down in 
 their accounts. Subsequent writers accepted, without investiga- 
 tion, this initial error, and turned from what they termed a " tem- 
 porary " settlement in Acadia, to a permanent one in Quebec. 
 It can be shown, however, that there was no break in the life of 
 De Mont's and Poutrincourt's colony. 
 
 In a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada,* Mr Ben- 
 jamin Suite has shown very considerable research on this point. 
 It is to be regretted that a prejudice against the Jesuits, scarcely 
 worthy of a writer of history, and a petulance not seemly in what 
 should be a calm, judicial inquiry, together with that inveterate 
 : gallic failing of aiming at epigram rather than accuracy, should mar 
 somewhat its pages, and excite distrust. No valid reason is advanced 
 in proof of the insinuations suggested. Neither steamers, nor 
 ocean cables were in use ; and the Jesuits may be well excused 
 
 Transactions Vol. II. 
 
for believing that the fate of all had not been dissimilar from their 
 own. As a whole, however, the article is most instructive. 
 
 Young Biencourt, whose character Father Biard has highly 
 praised, had no intention of quitting his new home, or relinquish- 
 ing the seignorial rights of his father. He and many of his colo- 
 nists had come to love Acadia : they had grown accustomed to its 
 climate, and realized its gieat possibilities. Disease no longer 
 decimated their numbers. According to Father Biard only two 
 men had died at Port Royal and St. Sauveur, from 1610 to 
 1613. Hence no sooner had Argall sailed away than they con- 
 certed measures for their future. The winter was soon on them, 
 but they lived it through bravely. In the spring Poutrincourt 
 arrived with a ship-load of provisions from France, and other 
 necessaries for his colonists. We can imagine their joy, and how 
 hopeful for the future were their hearts Poutrincourt went back 
 to France intending to return ; but owing to internal complica- 
 tions there, he was appointed to the command of Merry-sur-Seine. 
 Defending this place Poutrincourt, the first seignorial lord of Aca- 
 dia, fell on December 5th, 1615. His son succeeded to his title, 
 and rallied his men around Port Royal, which they rebuilt. A 
 saw-mill and grist-mills were soon at work. Aided by the 
 friendly Indians they lived and throve apace, both at Port Royal 
 and on the La Have river. Tilled fields supplied grain and vege- 
 tables ; some cattle had escaped the pillage ; the waters around the 
 coast yielded a rich harvest offish ; the woods supplied an abundance 
 of game, and better still, rich furs which they exchanged with pass- 
 ing vessels for clothing and ammunition. Posts were soon estab- 
 lished at Cap Fourchu, now Yarmouth, at Cap Sable and La 
 Have. In 1618 Biencourt, who was now Sieur of Poutrincourt, 
 wrote from " Port Royal in New France" on ist September, to the 
 authorities of Paris, urging them to send out colonists. This 
 interesting document is of great historic value ; it emphasizes 
 what we have said of the continuity of the first settlement, and 
 affords an incontrovertible proof of its reality. It points out the 
 many advantages of immigration to the immigrants themselves, to 
 France and to Acadia. It tells how the writer and his men have 
 
48 
 
 explored the country, and know it well, and that he " would not 
 exchange this land for Peru if it were properly settled." With 
 prophetic foresight he warns his countrymen that the English will 
 soon settle on the shores of New England, and endanger the 
 safety of Port Royal.* 
 
 The following springthreeRecollet Fathers came over, one of whom 
 went to Port Royal. The hardy colonists prospered and expanded ; 
 and so great was the commercial intercourse, between France and 
 Acadia, that many hundred vessels went to and fro in 1621. And when 
 the first Scotch settlers, under the grant from James I., came over in 
 1623 expecting to find an unoccupied territory, they were obliged to 
 beat a hasty retreat. Biencourt died that same year ; but from that 
 date onward, no question has ever been raised as to the presence 
 of the French in Acadia. The long series of struggles for the next 
 130 years speak for themselves. 
 
 It would be out of place to go more fully into this fascinating 
 subject. Enough has been said to bring into bold relief the fact that 
 years before Quebec had been founded, or the Mayflower had been 
 moored to Plymouth rock, an enduring settlement had been estab- 
 lished in Nova Scotia, the sacred fire had been enkindled, and the 
 truths of the Gospel taught to the untutored Indian. Owing to 
 greater security of situation the French nation favoured the settlements 
 on the St. Lawrence, and bent its energies to develop their resources. 
 Thus Quebec became the fixed seat of their transatlantic power, 
 and eventually the ecclesiastical head, and centre of the French 
 dominions in the new world. But it was not so from the beginning. 
 
 It will be of interest to add a few more notes on the varying 
 fortunes of the Acadians and of the Church which they loved so 
 well. The first Bishop of Quebec, Mgr. Laval, in a report of his 
 Diocese sent to Rome i66o,f speaks of Acadia as the "Home of 
 the French nearest the ocean, whither very many ships come, 
 especially on account ot its wonderful fisheries of cod, " And in 
 another Report of 2oth October, 1664, he says "It is an extensive 
 
 See Appendix B. fMand, Queb. Vol. I. 
 
49 
 
 and fertile country, having three military stations fortified with 
 ditches, mounds, and cannon." 
 
 In 1686, Bishop Vallier, after his appointment, but before his 
 consecration, visited Acadia. In a letter to a friend,* he gives 
 a graphic description of his journey. It is nothing now to come 
 from Quebec to Halifax, but two hundred years ago it was a feat 
 little, if at all less perilous than Stanley's expedition. We shall not 
 trace the course of his wanderings, but shall meet him at Beaubassin; 
 he truly says its "situation is charming." Ten years previously a 
 small colony had gone thither from Port Royal ; a Recollet Father 
 had been their pastor, but he had just been recalled to Quebec to 
 become Superior of their House. Bishop Vallier appointed one of 
 his priests to this mission. From Beaubassin the Bishop crossed 
 to the Mines, now since Longfellow's poetic but unmeaning corrup- 
 tion, called Minas. Thence he made his way to Port Royal. He 
 found the "Church quite prett>," and "reasonably well provided 
 with everything." He left a priest here to assist the worthy pastor. 
 We can gather from all this the substantial and permanent nature 
 of the progress made from 1604 to i686.f And in ( this we have 
 not referred to the permanent mission in Cheadabucto and places 
 in Cape Breton. A few extracts from a letter written a year previously 
 by the Pastor of Port Royal to the Bishop, may well be cited. They 
 show the character of the people as painted by their spiritual 
 father. The Bishop says he forund the account accurate ; and 
 seventy years later, one who had borne a part in their expulsion 
 from Bay Verte, gives similar testimony. J The Pastor writes: 
 " There are about six hundred souls (at Port Royal), people 
 of a gentle disposition, and piously inclined ; swearing, debauchery 
 and drunkness are unknown amongst them. Although they are 
 scattered along the River for four or five leagues, they come in 
 crowds to the church on Sundays and holidays, and receive 
 frequently the sacraments." 
 
 *Mand. Queb., Vol I. fSee Appendix C. 
 
 ^Brook Watson. (N.S Hist. Soc. Vol. II). 
 
50 
 
 The good priest takes no credit to himself for this exemplary 
 conduct of his people, but expressly says : "I found them such on 
 my arrival," and this notwithstanding they had been without a 
 pastor for several years during the English occupation. His Sunday 
 work is thus described : "On that day we always sing a High Mass,, 
 and I give a plain instruction according to my poor power, and 
 adapted to the capacity of my audience ; at two o'clock we sing 
 Vespers, and give benediction of the most Holy Sacrament, after 
 which I teach catechism to the children." 
 
 A school for girls taught by a sister, and one for boys gave testi- 
 mony to the enlightened zeal of the Missionary, and showed the 
 Church to be in Acadia what she had been in Europe, the pioneer 
 of education as well as of religion. We know not where, or how, this 
 brave old priest died.* Every true lover of his country will hope that 
 the dust of such a man has mingled with and sanctified the soil of 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 The above bright picture was soon darkened by the smoke of 
 battle ; the peaceful hamlet was again harried by war ; the Church 
 and Sanctuary were made desolate ; Port Royal was captured by 
 the English in 1690, but soon reverted to the French. In 1701 
 Sister Chauson, of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Cross, 
 gives a description of the place, which is in sad contrast with the 
 pleasing one, drawn by the Bishop fifteen years previously, and 
 makes us realize the many drawbacks to the propagation of the 
 faith in Acadia. Rev. Mr. Geoffroy, a Sulpitian, had sent Sister 
 Chauson to Port Royal to teach, and this is what she has to say : 
 "Our Church is in frightful poverty, its only covering is straw, the 
 walls are of logs, and instead of glass for the windows we have 
 paper. There is no bell, and the people are called to prayer by 
 the beating of a driim. * * * There is no crucifix, no picture r 
 no censsr, no vases for the wine and water, no finger towels ; there 
 is no drawer in which to keep the two or three old sets of vest- 
 ments, and a couple of much used albs. But what is still more 
 deplorable, the most Holy Sacrament is kept in a small wooden 
 
 *See Appendix C towards end tor a knowledge of his fate. 
 
51 
 
 box, composed of four boards nailed together. This is the Taber- 
 nacle in which the God of heaven and earth resides. The English 
 carried off a suitable Tabernacle that was here, also the sacred 
 vessels and the rest. In a word everything is wanting. Assuredly 
 our loving Saviour was not more poorly housed in the stable at 
 Bethlehem than here-"* 
 
 Stirring times soon followed: Port Royal in 1710, was again 
 captured, and in 1713 Acadia was ceded to England, and the 
 people promised freedom of worship. The French population 
 rapidly increased, and by the year 1755 they numbered many 
 thousands.! Ere that all the Micmacs had become fervent Catho- 
 lics, and a few Irish and Scotch had come to take up and continue 
 the mission of the Church. 
 
 The tragedy of the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, is a blood 
 stain, which like Pilate's hands, cannot be cleansed by all the water 
 of the Bay of Fundy, nor covered over by the subtile ingenuity of 
 modern apologists, The English government is not to blame ; the 
 foul deed was the work of New England, of men who were brave 
 against a defenceless peasantry, but who, later on, were either too 
 cowardly to fight for their king, or too craven to strike a blow for 
 liberty. By a most grotesque misnomer they are known in history 
 as "Loyalists." It is true many of the actors in that tragic scene 
 had the grace to be ashamed of the part they had played. When 
 they strode amidst the smoking ruins of Grand Pre, with no enemy 
 to fight, and no friend to protect, when they saw the dumb animals 
 seeking in vain for their former masters, and heard again, in 
 imagination, the wailings of the little ones so ruthlessly cast forth,, 
 and recalled the agony of wives and children vainly pleading to be 
 allowed to join their husbands and fathers, their sense of manhood 
 was aroused. They awoke to a keen realization of the dastardly 
 nature of this cruel act, so heartlessly executed, and they knew 
 they had been engaged in an expedition unworthy of soldiers. 
 Had they forseen the apologists of this expulsion, they would 
 
 *L'Eglise D Amerique du Nord Vol. II. fSee Appendix D. 
 
52 
 
 doubtless have cursed their folly in not allowing ihe cold veil of 
 silence to hide, undisturbed, the ghastly deed. 
 
 But the Church never dies. In this case her numbers were 
 decreased, her children scattered, still there was left a seed in Israel. 
 Father Descenclaves with some refugees took shelter in the woods 
 of Argyle. Father Maillard was permitted to minister to the 
 Indians, and a few Acadian families near Halifax. In 1760 he 
 was made Administrator of Acadia, and died in Halifax in 1762. 
 His'many good qualities had won the admiration of his former 
 enemies, and he continued the work of his ministry from 1755 until 
 his death. Owing to the high esteem in which he was held by all 
 classes, and to the fact that he was buried in the Protestant cem- 
 etery, it was supposed by some that he had fallen from the faith. 
 As the*e was no Catholic burying ground in Halifax until several 
 years after his death, he had perforce to be laid to rest in the Pro- 
 testant cemetery. His ecclesiastical superiors bear testimony to 
 his well spent life. This is a sufficient vindication. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Pere Baillyin 1768. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 THE CHURCH IN HALIFAX. 
 
 SSI VHLATION, growth and development, are character- 
 istics of all living organisms ; they are verified alike in plants 
 and animals without destroying their identity, or effecting 
 any change in the essentials of their nature. The tiny 
 oak through assimilation develops into a mighty tree ; the wailing 
 infant, by a not unsimilar process, waxes into a strong and vigorous 
 man ; the various stages through which they have passed may be 
 enumerated ; but the tree was always the same oak ; and the child, 
 the boy, the man always identical with himself in nature and being. 
 So too the Catholic Church in its long life of nineteen centuries, 
 both as a whole, and in Us various parts, has been engrafting wild 
 shrubs on the living vine, or assimilating the various tribes of man 
 kind, thus growing in numbers, developing in organization and 
 methods of teaching, in harmony with the requirements ot succes- 
 sive ages, yet always the self-same in faith, in obedience and means 
 of holiness. Hence what we call the Church in Halifax does not 
 differ from, nor is it a distinct foundation from the Church of Acadia. 
 It is simply a continuous development of the mustard seed sown at 
 Port Royal in 1604. At first its membership was exclusively French; 
 then the Micmacs were engrafted on the true vine ; later on Irish 
 and Scotch Catholics, in small numbers it is true, came to increase 
 its growth. By the expulsion of the Acadians the preponderance 
 of French members was indeed destroyed, but not the Church. 
 Its vital powers were unharmed, and growth and development 
 began again. The centre of its activity, however, was changed, as 
 well as the language of a large majority of its members ; hence we 
 speak of it as the Church in Halifax. 
 
 In the year 1 749 Halifax was founded, and soon became, what 
 it has ever since remained, the chief harbor and stronghold of the 
 
54 
 
 British Empire in America. In its early history we can easily discern 
 the sinister influence of the Plymouth Rock Puritan, To him in 
 great part must be ascribed the expulsion of the Acadians, as well as 
 the penal laws against Catholics. 
 
 In 1758 the Government at Halifax undertook to provide for the 
 spiritual as well as the temporal well-being of the province, Its 
 first Act was one to "Confirm titles in land." Section second of 
 this Act, however, says : "Provided that no Papist hereafter shall 
 have any right or title to hold, possess or enjoy any lands or tene- 
 ments, other than by virtue of any grant, or grants from the Crown, 
 but that all deeds, or wills, hereafter made, conveying lands or tene- 
 ments to any Papist, or in trust for any Papist, shall be utterly null 
 and void."* Not even his mother's grave could the poor Catholic 
 Irishmen own. Yet he came and throve. He appears to be as 
 insuppressable as his religion. 
 
 Having thus enacted that no Papist could become a landholder 
 by ordinary course, the Government went on to pass an " Act for 
 the establishment of religious public worship in the Province, and for 
 suppressing popery." It did indeed seem fitting, that after having 
 so happily provided for the temporal good, the pious Government 
 should look to the spiritual interests of the inhabitants. The pre- 
 amble has the true puritanical flavour of cant, cruelty and callous- 
 ness. Section first decrees the establishment of the Church of 
 England, but grants liberty of conscience to Protestant dissenters, 
 Calvanists, Lutherans and Quakers, and exempts them from taxation 
 for the support of the Church of England. 
 
 But no such concession could be made to the Church of all the 
 Ages. No ; it was decreed that "every popish person exercising any 
 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and every popish priest, or person exer- 
 cising the functions of a popish priest, shall depart out of this Pro- 
 vince on or before the 25th of March, 1 759. "fThat it might be known 
 this was no idle notice, all such were warned, chat if found after 
 that date, upon conviction, they would be adjudged to suffer per- 
 petual imprisonment, escape from which would be deemed felony 
 
 *Laws of Nova Scotia. Vol. I. flbidem. 
 
55 
 
 "without benefit of clergy." No chance for body or soul, so far as 
 the Government could prevent it. 
 
 Lest the compassion of individuals should frustrate this law, it 
 was further enacted that persons harbouring, relieving, concealing 
 any popish priest, should be fined fifty pounds, and be adjudged to 
 be set in the pillory, and to find sureties for good behaviour, at 
 the discretion of the Court. All this seems incredible. We at first 
 refuse to believe that the kindly act of giving a meal, or a night's 
 shelter to a hunted famishing priest, could condemn, even a strict 
 Protestant to the pillory. Yet we have only to read 32 George 2nd 
 to be convinced. 
 
 With such stringent laws, backed by a large military force, "Papal 
 aggression '' appeared a remote contingency. But the Church refuses 
 to be suppressed. Her vital force is indestructable and it cannot re- 
 main unfruitful. It was created for action and propagation, and no 
 power of man, or devils, can impede this law of its being. The 
 Church has broken down and triumphed over persecutions innumer- 
 able ; her assailants die and are forgotten ; their lighted torches 
 burn out ; their racks are broken ; their dungeons razed to the 
 ground ; their shackles mouldering to dust ; but the benign Mother 
 of Nations, in her strong gentleness lives on, unfearing and unde- 
 terred, as ready to-day as of yore to enter the lists against tyrants, 
 and to champion the rights of conscience. In a cold material age 
 when men are accounted as so many factors in an arithmetical 
 computation, and the supernatural made the gibe and the sneer of 
 a superficial generation, the Church presents herself to the consider- 
 ation of men of goodwill, as the one spiritual force that the mael- 
 strom of modern unbelief and animalism has been as unsuccessful 
 in destroying, as were the old time persecutors with fire and sword. 
 Her history even in this Province, if studied aright, will prove that 
 she is of God. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fierce enactments of 1758 (we do not call 
 them laws,because being essentially unjust they had no binding force) 
 the ubiquitous Irish Catholic came serenely to the front. In 1759, 
 Mr. Tobin, many of whose numerous descendants have held high 
 place in the commercial and social world, came hither to fix his abode. 
 
5d 
 
 Some Catholics had preceded him, others quickly followed.* The 
 Abbe Maillard, who had made peace with the English in 1759, and 
 who had been ministering to the Indians, and had disarmed their 
 wrath against the English, was now living in Halifax, and surrepti- 
 tiously attended to the spiritual wants of the Irish Catholics. The 
 days of the catacombs were renewed for the Church in Halifax ; 
 yet the work went on, and we may reasonably conclude that the 
 exemplary conduct, and pure faith of to-day, are part of the bless- 
 ings purchased by the sacrifices of the early Haligonian Catholics. 
 In 1766, the government, still under malign foreign influences, 
 passed an Act regarding education. By it the aspirant to the 
 pedagogic throne and birchen sceptre, should first be examined 
 by the Church of England minister of the place, or where there 
 was no minister, by two justices of the peace, a certificate having 
 been obtained, and the prescribed oaths having been taken, a 
 license to teach was granted, and the village master went forth 
 conquering and to conquer. But it would never do to allow a 
 Catholic to mount the tripod and wield the rod of discipline. No! 
 it was cautiously provided, that, "if any popish recusant, papist, or 
 person professing the popish religion, shall be so presumptions as to 
 set up any school within the province, and be detected therein, 
 such offender shall for every such offence, suffer three months 
 imprisonment, without bail or mainprize, and shall pay fine to the 
 King of ;io."f So far as these diabolical statutes could effect it, 
 the Catholic was to be landless, pastorless, and teacherless. Body, 
 soul and intellect were to be starved ; the price ot intellectual food 
 was apostacy. What was better calculated to degrade a race, and 
 yet who will dare assert that the Irish race, poor though they were, 
 and unlettered as they were forced to be, were ever either ignorant 
 or degraded ? No ! their faith saved them from degradation, and 
 more than supplied the lack of mere book knowledge. 
 
 *In 1760, according to a letter of one of its inhabitants, of the 3000 then in 
 Halifax, "one-third are Irish, and many of them Roman Catholics' 1 (Flaliburton 
 Vol II., 'page 12-13). We ma y be l uite sure > t l ie ma j r P art f tnem were R- 
 Catholics. 
 
 fLawsofN.S., Vol. I, 
 
57 
 
 In the meantime whilst the number of Catholics in Halifax was 
 quietly augmenting, many of the exiled Acadians had made their 
 way back to Nova Scotia, and had settled at St. Mary's Bay, and else- 
 where. Rev. Mr. Bailly came in 1768, at the request of the Gover- 
 nor, urged thereto by the Indians, to continue the work of Abbe' 
 Maillard. He was young and vigorous, and full of zeal, qualities 
 that were essential to the missionary who had so vast a field to 
 cultivate. Governor Franklin received him well, as did also his 
 successor Governor Campbell. Writing from Halifax 23rd May, 
 1769, to the Bishop of Quebec, he points out the difficulties of the 
 Mission owing to the people being scattered in all directions. On 
 22nd July, of same year, he says he has experienced many favours 
 from Governor Campbell and his Council ; that they had obtained 
 for him an allowance of one hundred pounds from the King. We see 
 by this that the atmosphere of Halifax was always a dissolvent of 
 bigotry. The firebrand never flourished in the old city by the sea. 
 There is some subtle broadening influence in the ocean air which 
 makes the Haligonian intellectually large brained, and develops 
 generosity of spirit. Nowhere on this continent perhaps, were 
 more stringent penal statutes enacted, and nowhere did they so 
 quickly become obsolete : and nowhere has there been so little 
 persecution, and so much kindly feeling between Catholics and 
 Protestants. A few bigots occasionally came, as they still come 
 hither. Thus Father Bailly writing from Halifax, 24th April, 1771, 
 says: "The Government appears opposed to the increase of mission- 
 aries, and all this opposition comes from the Presbyterians and the 
 people of New England. Last winter I said mass for three months in 
 this town, when suddenly I had to seek a secluded spot six miles 
 from the town in order to celebrate on Sundays.* I need not 
 have done this had I consented to shut the door of the barn, 
 wherein I had been saying mass, against all, except the Acadians 
 and Indians. * * * The Governor continues to honour me 
 with his protection, as do also the principal persons. * * * Two 
 Presbyterian ministers have preached publicly against me ; I have 
 
 *Les Acadiens Apres leurs Dispersion, Abbe Casgrain. 
 
58 
 
 been named in the papers. They say if the King is permitted to 
 place a priest in Nova Scotia, it will have to be tolerated should 
 he put one in Boston. The establishment of a piiest in Nova 
 Scotia is, they say, the disgrace of the present reign."* Poor men! 
 how they would have groaned in anguish of spirit had the veil of 
 futurity been drawn aside, and the priests and churches of Boston and 
 Nova Scotia of to-day been presented to their gaze. Surely thought- 
 ful men can learn a great lesson from this letter of the young mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 Father Bailly was succeeded shortly after this by Pere Labrosse ; 
 and within a not lengthy space of time Father Bourg, the son of one 
 of the expelled, came to minister to the returned exiles. This latter 
 zealous missionary did noble work for many years in Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick, and kept the Altar fires alight until the dawn of a 
 new era for Holy Church, as well as for the persecuted, though faith- 
 lul Acadian. The Abbe* Casgrain in his paper on the "Acadians after 
 their dispersion," recognizes that a new era began about the year 
 1783, but he has failed to attribute its rise to its true cause ; or to 
 point out to whom the Acadians, especially of Nova Scotia and 
 Prince Edward Island, are indebted for missionaries. 
 
 It was indeed a race of martyrs who came to the aid and rescue 
 of the sorely afflicted Acadians, but they were not their brothers in 
 blood. Some Frenchmen it is true were procured later on ; but the 
 men who broke the fetters, throttled the persecuting bigots, 
 asserted and enforced the rights of all Catholics, and made the 
 Acadians what they are to-day, were the sons of Erin, mailed in the 
 unshaken faith of their martyred ancestors. The Archives of Quebec 
 and Halifax prove this. 
 
 *This secluded spot, or literally as Father Bailly has it, "a hole in the coun- 
 try" was Birch Cove. In 1769 Father Bailly baptised a child there. That 
 same year he advised some Acadian families who lived near Halifax to go to 
 Minudie and take up land. This they did, as a daughter of one of them informed 
 Mr. P. Gaudet, to whom I am indebted for these facts. We can safely con- 
 clude, therefore, that Birch Cove was the spot. It is about six miles from town; 
 it was at that time most secluded ; there were Catholics there as the Register 
 of Baptism proves. The barn in which he had celebrated mass, previously was, 
 as local tradition has it, owned by Mr. Michael Tobin, and stood on South 
 street, almost opposite "Hillside House." As already mentioned, Mr. Tobin, 
 came to Halifax in 1759. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HALIFAX, (continued}. 
 
 'OR years the small colony of Irish Catholics had been slowly 
 but surely increasing in Halifax. Irishmen are popularly 
 supposed to be volatile of disposition, and changeful of 
 purpose ; yet history will bear us out that they come to stay wher- 
 ever they once fix an abode. More than this ; they soon take a 
 leading part in public affairs, or business enterprises. With a keen 
 sense of justice they disregard unjust statutes, falsely called laws, 
 and thus quickly force them into abeyance. The Englishman's 
 standard of right and wrong is the law ; an Irishman's, the dictates 
 of justice; the Englishman may be law-abiding, but the Irishman 
 is justice-loving. It is this correct placing of justice above law, 
 that fitted Irishmen for the glorious work they have achieved, of 
 breaking down tyranny within the Empire, as well as in many parts 
 of the United States. 
 
 In 1783, the Catholics of Halifax, composed of loyalists and 
 emigrants, chiefly from Munster, though still a very small minority, 
 deemed it time to demand their rights. Accordingly, William 
 Meany, John Cody, James Kavanagh, John Mullowny and John 
 Murphy, "on behalf of themselves and others, His Majesty's natural 
 born subjects, professing the Roman Catholic religion in this Pro- 
 vince," addressed a petition to Governor Hammond, asking for a 
 repeal of, or amendment to, the penal statutes. The obnoxious 
 clauses of the "Act for confirming titles to land." and of the one 
 "regarding public woship," were repealed. Catholics ,could now 
 hold and acquire land, and could build churches and have their 
 priests to minister to them, provided they (the priests) had a license 
 from the Governor, and took a certain prescribed oath. Con- 
 science was not violated by taking this oath, although some of its 
 clauses were insulting, in that they assumed Catholics had held 
 
60 
 
 certain tenets, which existed only in the diseased imagination of 
 their enemies. This act of justice was performed in 1783, not in 
 1782 as some have thought. We have consulted the statutes 
 themselves, so there can be no doubt on this point. The five brave 
 men who had sent the petition, now addressed a letter of thanks 
 to the Governor, and a circular to their fellow Catholics abroad. 
 No time was lost : the highly eligible site, whereon now stands St. 
 Mary's Cathedral, fronting on Spring Garden road, and running 
 from Harrington to Grafton street, was purchased, and on Monday, 
 ipth July, 1784, the frame of the first Catholic church was raised 
 in Halifax, "in presence of a great concourse of gentlemen and other 
 people." 
 
 It was an unpretentious structure, to which some ten years 
 later a spire and bell tower were added. It stood back from 
 Grafton street, on which it faced, quite a distance, occupying 
 almost the site of the present chancel of St. Mary's Cathedral. 
 The intermediate space was used as a burial ground, to which 
 there was an entrance from Grafton street ; but the approach to 
 the Church was from Barrington street, along the northern line of 
 the property. This would correspond with the south wall of St. 
 Mary's boys' school. At the south-east end of the church there 
 was a small vestry ; and south of that a cottage for the priest was 
 built in 1785 86. The plot of ground between the house and Bar- 
 rington street, now occupied by the convent of the Sisters of 
 Charity, and land attached thereto, was a garden in which potatoes 
 and other vegetables were grown for many years. In an old book 
 of accounts we find, payments made for "digging potatoes in the 
 priest's garden" as late as 1805. 
 
 We can only faintly imagine the joy that filled the hearts of the 
 few faithful Catholics of Halifax, and those scattered along the 
 western shore as far as Prospect, as well as the various groups of 
 Acadians, when their modest " House of God " arose, and they 
 realized that the night of their spiritual desolation was passed, and 
 the hateful shackles broken beyond possibility of repair. Their 
 Church was small and bare, yet it was their own. They had secured 
 ample space for future needs ; they knew growth was a quality of 
 

 
 PQ 
 
 a. 
 o 
 
 CQ 
 
 s- 
 
 0) 
 
 cq 
 
 ra 
 
61 
 
 the Church. With their undying faith they may have had visions of 
 the stately pile which should one day take the place of " Old St. 
 Peters." for the prince of the Apostles was the Patron of the first 
 Church. Application for a pastor was made to the Bishop of Cork, 
 and in 1785 the Reverend James Jones, of the Order of Capuchins, 
 came to assume charge of the Catholics of Halifax. Father Bourg, 
 who was Vicar-General for Nova Scotia, saw his credentials and 
 gave him faculties. September 4th, 1785, he wrote to the Bishop of 
 Quebec announcing his arrival and forwarding a letter from the 
 Bishop of Cork. This prelate offered to supply missionaries until 
 such time as the youth of the country could be educated for the 
 work. Bishop d'Esglis in his reply " blesses the mercy and provid- 
 ence of God towards the good Catholics of Halifax in giving them 
 a priest according to their desires. " He asks Father Jones to say 
 for him "a thousand kind things to your people of Halifax ; you can- 
 not be guilty of excess in the expression of the sentiments of tender- 
 ness and attachment which I cherish for this remarkable portion of 
 my flock. Their devotion to the Faith caused them to obtain from 
 Parliament that which many others would not dare to ask ; 
 nor did the expenses of succeeding in this great project, nor those 
 of building a Church, and if procuring missionaries daunt them." 
 
 The good Bishop did not undervalue what the exiles had accom- 
 plished for the liberty of all Catholics. 
 
 Father Jones found his mission sadly in need of many neces- 
 saries for the decencies of Divine Service ; he also recognized that 
 the fields were whitening for the harvest, but, the reapers, alas ! were 
 not at hand. The Rev. William Phelan came to Nova Scotia in 
 1786, or early in 1787, and had his headquarters at Arichat, visiting 
 from time to time St. Mary's Bay, Cap Sable, other parts of Nova 
 Scotia and Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen 
 Islands. During the year 1787, Father Jones wrote several letters 
 to the Bishop, pointing out the spiritual needs of his mission, and 
 urging the placing of priests at Shelburne, Digby, River St. John, 
 Antigonish, Windsor or other points, whence he could visit occasion- 
 ally the various harbors, unless this were done he feared that "except 
 a few Acadians and the Indians there would be no Catholics in these 
 5 
 
62 
 
 Provinces in twenty years." The number of Protestant families with 
 Irish Catholic names scattered throughout Nova Scotia, show his 
 fears to have had some foundation, and are a mournful reminder of 
 our losses. Well might he add : " my heart bleeds when I reflect 
 on what can be done, and that none step forward." 
 
 A long letter dated Quebec, October 22nd, 1787, written by the 
 Coadjutor Bishop, acknowledges the receipt of Father Jones 
 letters, and regrets that absence and pressing business prevented an 
 earlier reply. A document was enclosed constituting Father Jones 
 Superior of the missions of Nova Scotia, under which title Cape 
 Breton, P. E. Island, the Magdalen Islands, and part of New 
 Brunswick were included, and giving him all necessary faculties and 
 powers for the office. The letter contains many directions for his 
 guidance, and referring to the want of miss onaries says : "From 
 what you have written it is readily understood that evangelical 
 labourers are required in various missions of Nova Scotia, in which 
 there have not been any up to the present. But in truth the 
 Diocese of Quebec is not in a position to supply them herself. 
 Canadian ecclesiatics barely suffice to fill the vacant places in the 
 centre of the Diocese. There is, therefore, no resource for Nova 
 Scotia, except in the zeal of Irish or English priests, who may wish 
 to come and work under your orders. We leave it entirely to your 
 prudence to place the missionaries according to their talents and 
 the needs of the people, and to assign the limits of their jurisdiction 
 as may seem well to you, both as regards place and time," 
 
 There is no ambiguity about these words ; but lest it might be 
 supposed provision would be made at least for the Acadians, it was 
 added further on : "the Acadians living in Nova Scotia must be- 
 come accustomed to English missionaries, since others can no 
 longer be provided. Their fastidiousness on this score will be 
 removed, the more so that the greater number understand and 
 speak English fairly well."* 
 
 *This is the original ; "Les Acadiens etablis dans la Nouvelle Ecosse doivent 
 s'accoutumer aux Miseres Anglois puisqu'on ne peut plus leur en procurer 
 
 d'autres. Leur delicatesse sur ce point seroit deplacee d'autant quele plupart 
 
 entendent et parlent passablement 1'Anglois. 
 
63 
 
 From 1604 to 1755 the missionaries who had laboured in Acadia 
 had come almost exclusively from France. At the expulsion Abbe* 
 Maillard had been detained by the Halifax Government to quiet 
 the Indians. Later on, as the Acadians gradually returned, the 
 Government wishing to keep to the treaty of Utrecht, as well as to 
 conciliate the Indians, asked the Bishop of Quebec for a priest to 
 succeed the Abbe Maillard, who died in 1762 not 1768. It was by 
 reason of this request, as the Bishop of Quebec himself states in a 
 letter to Father Bailly,* that this latter missionary was sent to 
 Nova Scotia. The Government gave him one hundred pounds a 
 year, and continued that stipend to Rev. Mr. Bourg, his successor. 
 The Acadians had to thank the political exigencies of the Govern- 
 ment for the ministrations of Maillard, Bailly and Bourg ; hence- 
 forth, they were told with no uncertain sound by Quebec, that 
 they would have to rely on the "zeal of the Irish and English 
 priests" whom Father Jones might succeed in obtaining, and to 
 whom they must accustom themselves, as they could hope for no 
 aid from their kinsmen in Canada. Well it was for the Acadians 
 that the Irish clergy, whatever may have been their shortcomings, 
 had zeal for the faith ; and doubly well was it for them that Father 
 Jones was too broad-minded, and too considerate of their national 
 aspirations, to attempt to act up to the spirit of these instructions. 
 He sought on all sides, as his letters to the Bishop of Quebec show, 
 for French priests. He kept alive the hopes and aspirations of the 
 Acadians by promising to procure, as soon as possible, priests of 
 their own nationality. In the meantime he visited, and caused 
 them to be regularly visited by Irish priests, who spoke their lang- 
 uage, although not able to preach very well in it. 
 
 In 1787, Rev. Mr. Power came to Nova Scotia. He visited St. 
 Mary's Bay, Cap Sable, the coast of Halifax County, Tracadie, 
 Magdalen Islands, Pictou and P. E. Island. For several years he 
 laboured, in what we may call a roving fashion, in these various 
 places. The consolations of religion were brought from time to 
 time to Catholics scattered over this and the adjoining countries. 
 
 *See letter in Abbe Casgrain's work already cited . 
 
64 
 
 The pioneers had to prepare the way, later on the builders would 
 appear. 
 
 In 1789, Father Grace, a Capuchin, arrived in Halifax. He was 
 amongst the Acadians in the west during the winter of 1790, and 
 the following summer. He went there on other occasions later on, 
 remaining for several consecutive months. He also visited Chez- 
 zetcook and Prospect. 
 
 In 1789 Father Jones received a petition from Prince Edward 
 Island for a resident priest. In informing the Vicar-General of 
 Quebec of this application he suggests that a Mr. McDonald or Mc- 
 Donell, who was then in Montreal should be sent. He had the 
 consolation of writing on 5th October, 1790, that 250 Scotch 
 Catholics with a priest named McEachan had arrived on Prince 
 Edward Island. In that letter he says there were before these 
 arrivals, 50 families of Scotch Catholics in the island, 28 at Meiri- 
 gonish, 20 at Miramichi, 8 at Pictou ; 66 Acadian families on P. E. 
 I., 26 at Cheticamp, and 30 at Trecadie ; he thought these would 
 keep Fathers Power and McEachan sufficiently employed. He would 
 ask the latter to go to Pictou the next summer, as he could preach 
 in Gaelic, to counteract the work of some Calvanist Ministers who 
 were preaching there in that tongue. Evidently he was not sleeping 
 at his post, nor did petty questions of nationality occupy his thoughts. 
 He rejoiced at the advent of Father McEachen for the sake 
 of the Scotch; just as he tells his superiors (24 October, 1791,) 
 that " nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see a Cana- 
 dian in charge of Arichat, and St. Mary's Bay." He still hoped for 
 help from that quarter for the Acadians ; but his hope was never 
 realized 
 
 In November of 1790, the Rev. Lawrence Whelan came to Hali- 
 fax, and remained about two years, Father Jones gave him charge 
 of the city, and went to visit various parts of his extensive district. 
 In 1791 Rev. James McDonald arrived in Pictou with several Scot- 
 tish families. 
 
 In April, 1792, he was at Arichat, and deemed it well to dispense 
 with the services of Rev. Wm. Phelan. Two years later this clergy- 
 man went to the United States, and died somewhere in Pennsyl- 
 
65 
 
 vania in 1795. Whilst at Arichat Father Jones issued an address 
 to the Catholics of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and P. E. L, and 
 gives a list of the missionaries approved for these parts. They were 
 Messrs. Bourg, LeRoux, Power, Grace, McEachen, Lawrence 
 Whelan and himself. The two former were in New Brunswick, 
 Father McEachan in P. E. I., the other four in Nova Scotia. 
 
 During the summer of this year Father Jones was enabled to 
 secure the services of two excellent French Priests. Providence was 
 coming to aid his zeal for the Acadians. The work of these Mis- 
 sionaries is justly remembered and praised ; the action of him to 
 whom, under God, the people are indebted for these men would 
 seem to merit recognition. 
 
 Father Lejamtel of the Diocese of Coutances, France, had been 
 for five or six years laboring at St. Pierre, Miquelon. In 1792 the 
 spirit of the French Revolution had reached that rocky shore. 
 Father Lejamtel and a Father Allain were requested to take a schis- 
 matical oath. To escape the consequences of refusal they fled the 
 country, and reached the Magdalen Islands. Father Allain, fatigued 
 with the journey, remained there, whilst Father Lejamtel made 
 his way to Halifax. He arrived just as Father Jones was about 
 to set out the second time for Arichat to settle difficulties growing 
 out of the dismissal of Mr. Phelan. Finding his testimonials in 
 order, Father Jones decided to take Mr, Lejamtal with him to 
 Arichat, and there left him in charge. He accepted also the services 
 of Father Allain, and gave him the Magdalen Islands as his 
 principal mission. Having provided French Missionaries for these 
 two important places, he next sought in Philadelphia for a French 
 priest to be placed at St. Mary's Bay. He was unsuccessful, how- 
 ever, in his quest. 
 
 In 1793, a belfry was built to the Church at Halifax, and the 
 following summer a spire was added, A bell was also purchased. 
 It would appear that it had belonged to the Church at St. Pierre, 
 Miquelon, and had been carried to Halifax as a prize of war. In 
 1794, a Church was built at Prospect, largely owing no doubt, to 
 the efforts of Father Jones who had passed several weeks with the 
 settlers along the shore some time previously. He wrote' this same 
 
66 
 
 year to the Bishop of St. Pol de Lyon, then the official head in 
 England of the French priests who had fled thither from France, ask- 
 ing for three French priests ; they were promised him, but owing to 
 the difficulties of the times they did not come. 
 
 Early in 1794, Father LeRoux who had been stationed at Memram- 
 cook for many years, attending . also Minudie, Petticodiac, 
 Shediac, &c., departed this life. Owing to the facilities afforded by 
 inland waters, the difficulty of attending this mission was less than 
 that to be encountered by the priests who ministered along the 
 rough ocean coast of Nova Scotia, or threaded the almost pathless 
 wilds between Cap Sable and St. Mary's Bay. But these 
 latter, unlike Father LeRoux, have not left any letters telling of 
 their hardships and privations. Possibly like the Celtic missionaries 
 of old, they looked on these hardships as a necessary concomitant 
 of their Evangelical mission. 
 
 Father Jones duly notified the Bishop of Father LeRoux's death; 
 no priest coming to replace him, a delegation of the people came 
 to Halifax. They came a second time, and carried back Father 
 Power who was in the city after having spent some time at Prospect. 
 For nine years he remained with his friendly captors. The Aca- 
 dians who had written to Father Jones complaining that Father 
 LeRoux, in his last year, was unable to attend them, never once 
 complained of Father Power. If, however, as Abbe Casgrain says, 
 they were " very irregularly attended by priests, who only knew 
 imperfectly their language and their dispositions " during these 
 years, with whom did the fault lie ? Quebec might have sent a 
 French speaking clergyman ; but Father Jones could not create 
 one. Whether or not the spiritual ministrations given the Acadians 
 were all that could be desired may be open to question ; but for 
 them, such as they were, the people know to whom they were 
 indebted. 
 
 For years Father Jones had been endeavouring to procure a suit- 
 able missionary for St. Mary's Bay. The Acadians of the Western 
 Counties had full confidence in him, as well they might. He did 
 his best to provide for their spiritual needs, both by visiting them 
 himself, and by sending from time to time priests who could speak 
 
67 
 
 their language. In September, 1790, they addressed a letter to 
 him, expressing their gratitude and satisfaction, and begging him 
 to endeavor to provide for them a resident priest. We have s?en 
 what steps he took on various occasions. He wrote, amongst others, 
 to Dr. Matigny in Boston, and when in Philadelphia in 179$, inter- 
 viewed some refugee French priests. In 1796, he induced the 
 Governor of Nova Scotia, to whom the people of St. Mary's* Bay 
 had sent a memorial, to write to London for one. Things moved 
 more slowly in those days than now, but people had more patience. 
 At length in the spring of 1799, Father Jones had the joy arid 
 consolation of seeing realized his long deferred hopes ; and the 
 Acadians of Western Nova Scotia and their deceridants had ample 
 reason to thank the God they served, and to hold in grateful 
 remembrance the first Irish Missionary in Nova Scotia. He had not 
 sought to force them " to accustom themselves to English mission- 
 aries " ; on the contrary, he encouraged them to hope for a French 
 priest, and now at last the right man had come. This was the 
 Abbe Sigo^ne, who for forty-five years laboured amongst them, 
 leaving at death an undying name. 
 
 Writing on 2nd August, 1799, to the Coadjutor Bishop, Father 
 Jones says : " Mr. Sigogne is pleased at Cap Sable, he will be 
 more so with St. Mary's Bay. He is a good man, not strong in 
 body, and about 37 years of age ; he will give every account of his 
 business." Both at Cap Sable and St. Mary's Bay there had long 
 been a church and small presbytery. 
 
 In August, 1799, the Abbe de Calonne and Rev. Mr. Pilchartoi: 
 Pilchard, arrived at Halifax, on their way to P. E. Island. A' Rev; 
 Mr. Burke had also come to Halifax from Newfoundland. 
 
 In the year 1800, Father Jones resolved to carry out a project 
 which he had in view for some years, viz., to revisit Ireland. The 
 time seemed propitious. He had been fifteen years in Halifax, 
 and for thirteen of them Superior of the Missions. When he came, in 
 1785, there were only Father Bourg in Nova Scotia, and Father Le- 
 Roux in New Brunswick, both now dead. In 1787, he had 
 been told that henceforth Nova Scotia must depend on "the zeal 
 of the Irish and English priests who may wish to come and serve 
 
68 
 
 under your orders." Under God, then, to him is due the credit 
 for the work of those years. What account can he now give of his 
 stewardship ? Fathers McEachan and Pilchart and the Abbe 
 Calonne in P. E. Island ; Father Power at Memramcook, Lejamtel 
 at Arichat ; Allain at the Magdalen Islands : MacDonald (now an 
 invalid) at Pictou ; Sigogne at St. Mary's Bay ; Grace at Prospect, 
 and Burke (not the Bishop) at Halifax. Ten besides himself. The 
 mustard seed Rad taken root. 
 
 As Father Jones was the first Irish priest in Halifax, or, in fact, 
 in Nova Scotia, and as he remained for fifteen years in this city, we 
 have deemed it well to show from his own letters, and from the 
 public testimony of his ecclesiastical superiors, what manner of 
 man he was in the days of his physical vigour. Owing, however, 
 to the unorganized state of Catholic affairs in Nova Scotia, as well 
 as the distance from, and difficulty of communication with Quebec, 
 and above all, perhaps, owing to the fact that no Bishop of Quebec 
 had visited Halifax, dissensions arose in the closing years of Father 
 Jones' ministry. Bereft of episcopal guidance the church wardens 
 and priest could not settle their difficulties. A few turbulent 
 persons can easily engender confusion, and arouse a spirit of dis- 
 satisfaction : when the strong hand of authority is not nigh to hold 
 in check the discordant elements, and to firmly grasp the helm, the 
 danger of shipwreck is very imminent. Religion cannot flourish in 
 regions unmarked by episcopal footprints, and unblessed by epis- 
 copal ministrations. How much of the awful decadence of our 
 faith in countries once noted for their Catholic spirit, is due to 
 the aloofness of Bishops from their people, only the last day will 
 reveal. 
 
 On the 8th August, of 1800, Father Jones left for Ireland, and 
 apparently was undecided whether or not he should return. A 
 Rev. Edmund Burke, a Dominican Friar, who though bearing the 
 same name, must not be confounded with the Father Burke of 
 whom we have been treating, assumed charge of the congregation 
 of Halifax, and ministered to it until the September of 1801. From 
 a letter of his, written to the Bishop of Quebec, and dated at Hal- 
 ifax, i5th May, 1801, we glean that after the departure of Father 
 
69 
 
 Jones, a meeting was held at which a certain gentleman made some 
 ridiculous proposals regarding their future action towards their 
 pastor. He wished to have him engaged quarterly, to be remov- 
 able at pleasure, etc. The congregation, however, "warmly 
 opposed " and "rejected" them. A set of "regulations" was at 
 length adopted by the meeting, a copy of which was sent to the 
 Bishop. We may here say that Bishop Denaut, with commendable 
 prudence and firmness, approved some, modified others, rejected 
 such as would tend to weaken the legitimate influence of the priest, 
 or to lower his status, and suspended judgment on several until his 
 pastoral visit, which he hoped to make soon, when he could see for 
 himself the circumstances of the congregation, and its needs. To 
 carry out his views, to restore p:ace and harmony, to forward the 
 work of God in Nova Scotia, and to bring to Halifax blessings of 
 which he wot not, but which were in the Council's of the Almighty, 
 he appointed Father Burke, whose zeal and labours in the missions 
 of Detroit and Upper Canada had been so fruitful of blessings, to 
 the spiritual charge of Halifax, constituting him his Vicar General, 
 and Superior of the Missions of Nova Scotia. Then, indeed, began 
 the dawn of a glorious day, not only for the persecuted Irish and 
 Scotch of Nova Scotia, but also for the faithful Acadians, who would 
 receive more loving care and attention than they had ever exper- 
 ienced in their eventful past. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DAWN. 
 
 HE history of nations, and much less the history of the 
 Church, is not made' up of haphazard events unconnected 
 between themselves, and conspiring to no particular end. 
 The designs of Providence are worked out in the course of ages ; 
 the looms may weave slowly ; a great variety of colours may be 
 found in the warp and woof, but in due season a harmonious and 
 finished part of the great whole will greet the eyes of the thoughtful 
 student of history. In a variety of ways, during many years, 
 Father Burke was being prepared and fitted for his work in Halifax. 
 The penal laws which had sent him to Paris to be educated, the 
 dissensions in his native diocese which had induced him to leave 
 it, and the action of Rev. Mr. Hussey, agent of the Quebec seminary 
 in London, that had sent him to Canada,* may appear to have no 
 connection each with the other, and yet in the designs of Provi- 
 dence they all conspired to a foreseen and intended end. The 
 intimate contact, whilst at Quebec, with Government officials, 
 and the knowledge thus acquired was no slight benefit to Father 
 Burke ; of service, too, were the studious and regular habits of the 
 seminary. The active life in the missions of Upper Canada famil- 
 iarized him with the state of a new country, and enabled him to 
 understand its requirements. It served also to develop his self- 
 reliance and decision of character, and to teach him the methods of 
 proceedure best adapted to surroundings that differed \videly, not 
 only from those existing in Ireland, but even from those at Quebec. 
 In this varied experience all things co-operated unto good. His 
 intellectual faculties had been ripened by assiduous study and 
 teaching ; habits of order and regularity strengthened ; his social 
 qualities brought into play ; a knowledge of public men, and of 
 
 *Mand. Queb., Vol. II. 
 
71 
 
 the views of government acquired ; and the wants and needs of 
 the missionary field had been learned, not theoretically, but prac- 
 tically. He was now ready for the important work for which his 
 manifold training had been but a preparation. The See of Halifax 
 was singularly fortunate in the founder of its traditions. 
 
 In September of 1801, Father Burke left Quebec for Halifax; 
 we shall allow him to tell the tale of his coming. In a letter of 
 loth October, to the Coadjutor Bishop of Quebec, he writes : 
 "after a prosperous voyage of twelve days we arrived here the 2nd 
 inst, (the feast of the Holy Angels), and I said mass in honour of 
 my good angel who had conducted us hither without any accident. 
 I admired, in passing, Chedabucto Bay, opposite Arichat, and also 
 the Straits of Canso, where we were becalmed for a time ; Little 
 Canso, which as you come out of the Bay, is not more than sixty 
 yards wide, is the most romantic spot I have yet seen * 
 I see no difficulty in restoring order here amongst the good Irish 
 people. They never had any idea of disregarding their duty, or of 
 disobedience to their Bishop. As soon as your letter announcing 
 that his Lordship had appointed a missionary arrived, they began 
 to prepare the presbytery for his reception. They have almost 
 completely furnished it in English style, so that your Lordship can 
 be entertained like a Bishop at Court. You are expected here ; 
 I have began already to prepare the children for confirmation. 
 
 Our church is small for the congregation, but it is pretty. In- 
 stead of a sanctuary choir we have in an organ loft at the end. a 
 number of poor singers who bellow forth a species of figured music 
 in a way to break the tympanum of one's ears. It will take time 
 to substitute for this the music of the church. * * * In a 
 short time one priest will not be sufficient for this mission, hence I 
 shall begin to provide for this in time." We can see how the 
 learned student unconsciously reveals himself in the following 
 words : "My good friend Grave would not loan me the Hebrew 
 bible of which he makes no use. I have arranged with a merchant 
 from Cork, who will pass by Quebec, to procure one for me." 
 
 On the day of his arrival in Halifax he began a Register of Bap- 
 tisms, Marriages and Interments for the Church of St. Peter's, in 
 
72 
 
 the city of Halifax." The first entry is the baptism on 3rd October, 
 1801, of Anne, daughter of Edward Ford and Mary Lynch. 
 
 In a second letter to the Bishop, i6th January, 1802, he says: 
 "as yet I have not met with the least obstacle from any one. The 
 order and discipline of the diocese are established with the consent 
 of all. * * The members of the former committee, against 
 whom there were some unfounded prejudices, have resigned. * * 
 Little by little the frequenting of the Sacraments is growing. Do 
 not imagine, my Lord, that any great effort was required to restore 
 order ; not at all, the people are docile. It is true that in the 
 beginning they complained bitterly. I was deaf to this, and had 
 only one answer for all, viz., "that the Bishop had not sent me here 
 to listen to complaints, nor to obtain information regarding the 
 conduct of any one, but to cause the laws and discipline of the 
 Church to be observed in his diocese. This is a summary of what 
 has happened in Halifax since my arrival." 
 
 The tact and prudence of Father Burke are unconsciously por- 
 trayed in this letter, and we can learn from a subsequent one the 
 fruit produced. On 26th April, 18o2, he can write : "Lent has 
 been observed according to the rules of the Church without a 
 dispensation, and all have fulfilled their Easter duties, Deo gratias?" 1 
 To show how quickly dissensions were healed, difficulties over- 
 come, and perfect harmony restored under the wise and zealous 
 ministry of Father Burke, we may here quote two "official" letters, 
 copies of which are found in the warden's book. The first is from 
 the committee appointed after the arrival of Father Burke, and is 
 dated i8th January, 1802. It is addressed to his Lordship, Bishop 
 Denaut of Quebec, and is as follows : 
 
 MY LORD, In obedience to the instructions conveyed in your 
 lordship's pastoral letter of the 8th of September, 1801, and the 
 remarks annexed to an abridgement of certain regulations intended 
 to direct the conduct of our late worthy committee and their suc- 
 cessors, at a primary meeting of the Catholic inhabitants of this 
 town, twenty-nine electors were chosen, who, in conjunction with 
 the members of the former committee, proceeded to elect by ballot a 
 warden with three assistants, to succeed in rotation, the gentlemen 
 
73 
 
 of the former committee having declined. We had the honour of 
 being chosen to fill that important office, though there be many in 
 the community better qualified. 
 
 We think it our duty to inform your lordship that the whole of 
 this arduous business has been conducted without a contradiction, 
 and to the entire satisfaction of all parties. To your lordship's 
 paternal vigilance and effectual attention to our wants as soon as 
 made known, we stand indebted for that harmony which now sub- 
 sists. Dissensions did exist, the natural effect of that want of order 
 and discipline which prevailed. That was the true source of our 
 divisions, and of confusion amongst us, not any intention to dis- 
 claim the obedience we owe our pastors, confusion which was 
 of a long continuance, and had gradually increased to such an 
 alarming pitch as to threaten the dissolution of our congregation. 
 It does not become us to complain, whatever causes might have 
 existed, yet we have to lament that till the arrival of the present 
 Rev. Mr. Burke, (to whose salutary measures and indefatigable 
 exertions we feel sensibly indebted), we have had no pastors of your 
 lordship's immediate choice, and we have to hope and humbly 
 request as representatives of this congregation, that in future, your 
 lordship, and his successors, will direct men chosen in his or their 
 wisdom, and none others to conduct this parish. We have also to 
 request that your lordship will graciously please to honor us with 
 his presence this ensuing summer. If want of health or other 
 weighty reasons deprive us of that pleasure, may we hope that your 
 lordship will direct his Coadjutor to honor us with a visit. 
 We have the honor to be, etc., 
 (Signed), P. RYAN, 
 
 M. BENNETT, 
 EDMUND BUTLER, 
 JAMES TOBIN. 
 
 This letter is endorsed by the members of the old committee 
 who also, write as follows : 
 
 MY LORD, Your Lordship's favor of 8th of September last, 
 came to hand late in the month of October. We received that 
 additional mark of your paternal attention with becoming gratitude, 
 
74 
 
 and we have paid that implicit obedience to your Lordship's instruc- 
 tions in their fullest extent, which as dutiful children of the Catholic 
 Chnrch, we owe to our first pastor. With pleasure we inform your 
 Lordship, that through the mercy of God all dissensions are done 
 away, peace and harmony are restored. We have now to hope and 
 request a continuance of your fatherly care, and we shall consider 
 as a signal mark of condescension the visit which your Lordship 
 has given us some reason to expect in the course of next summer. 
 We have the honor to be, etc., 
 
 (Signed), MICH. TOBIN, 
 C CONNOR, 
 JOHN MAGUIRE, 
 PETER LYNCH, 
 PAT. O'BRIEN. 
 
 Thus owing to the faith and true Catholic instincts of the people, 
 the admirable qualities of Father Burke, and the discretion of 
 Bishop Denaut in his gentle though firm dealing with the " Rules" 
 crudely drawn up by some of the congregation in the August of 
 1800, all difficulties happily ended. The Church of Halifax grew 
 and waxed strong in peace and unity. 
 
 Intent on promoting the beauty of God's house, and in provid- 
 ing, not the bare necessaries alone, but also many adornments for 
 the Altar and Sanctuary, Father Burke writes to Quebec for these 
 articles, and soon has an abundant supply. He asks also for a 
 Roman Missal, saying the one in use was that of the Recollet 
 Fathers. * A valuable relic of the early missions in Nova Scotia, 
 and a link of connection between them and the Church of Halifax. 
 We learn, too, of some church goods that came from the 
 Spanish possessions. In a letter of 23rd July, 1802, he writes : "I 
 am sending you some vestments made, and half made, such as they 
 have been given to us. Some privateers from here stole them from 
 the poor Spaniards, and not knowing what to do with them, made 
 
 * On reading this, search was made, and a Recollet Missal, long disused, 
 was found in one of our churches. It is now in the Diocesan Library. The 
 Canon of the Mass is beautifully printed on parchment in the Richelieu type. 
 Several full page woodcuts, well executed, adorn the work. 
 
75 
 
 a present of them to us. The title is good, for the war was still 
 raging when those rascals landed in Spanish territory. You see 
 My Lord, how the misfortune of some becomes the good fortune 
 of others ! " 
 
 Attention was likewise given to perfecting the Choir in the music 
 of the Church. We have the names of the various members of the 
 Choir during a period of twenty-two years, with the minutes of their 
 numerous meetings. There were active and honorary members, 
 the former were admitted free, the latter paid five shillings. But 
 they had to run the gauntlet of the ballot, and three black beans 
 sufficed to blight the budding aspiration of the seeker after the 
 honours of the organ loft . They had a President, Secretary and 
 two Stewards. It is doubtful if our modern choirs have those 
 latter officials, but they played an important part, for we are 
 informed their duty was "to provide refreshments for the Society 
 at each meeting, agreeably to the directions they will receive from 
 time to time from the President on behalf of the Society, to whom 
 they will render an account of the expenses." The duty of mem- 
 bers was " to attend when summoned, or give some satisfactory 
 excuse for their non-attendance." An admirable rule, indeed, and 
 worthy of imitation by societies other than those of singing. The 
 members were also "bound" to use their influence to increase the 
 membership, and to promote the interests of the Society. The 
 meetings were weekly at first, afterwards quarterly, and each active 
 member had to pay sevenpence halfpenny each meeting ; honor- 
 ary members two shillings and sixpence a quarter, besides seven- 
 pence halfpenny on the nights of meeting. A member might bring 
 a guest by paying a like amount. In those early days they fully 
 grasped the idea that it was a privilege to be allowed to sing at 
 Mass ; they had not the remotest thought that they were conferring 
 a favour. Occasionally we find the names of visitors who attended, 
 for instance Mr. James Foreman and Lieut. Shoedde, 6oth Reg.; 
 Mr. Wm. Bowie, Mr. John Neull, St. Paul's Singing Society; Mr. 
 Wiswell, Union Singing Society ; Capt. Ruell of Quebec, &c. A 
 Mr. Fisher was teacher of the Choir, and was paid six pounds per 
 quarter. In 1 8 TO, the initiation fee was raised to one pound, and 
 
76 
 
 delinquents were ordered to pay up promptly ; otherwise dismissal 
 with no hope of ever being taken back, was to be their lot. 
 
 On 4th October. 1808, the Choir resolved to purchase an organ, 
 and appointed a committee of three to make enquiries and report. 
 A Dr. Sullivan had left by will one hundred pounds for this purpose. 
 The Choir generously resolved to provide the balance themselves, 
 and to make a present of the organ to the Church. In the summer 
 of 1 8 10, it was safely landed in Halifax, having been bought in 
 London from James Barlow. Mr. Quirk was engaged for two years 
 by the Choir as organist, at a salary of eleven shillings and eight 
 pence ($2.30) for "each and every Sunday and holiday on which 
 he shall perform." On 2ist May, 1811, the President reported, 
 to the satisfaction of all concerned, that the total cost of the organ, 
 amounting to ^567. 16.3 had been paid. There is a moral some- 
 where in all this for Choirs of today. 
 
 The sexton was Daniel Moore, who was paid two pounds per 
 quarter from the Church ; but as he combined the duties of care- 
 taker of the cemetery with those attaching to the office of sexton, 
 his quarterly allowance was considerably increased. 
 
 The accounts show that in 1802, a cord of wood cost twenty- 
 five shillings; hauling the same, three; chopping and housing, seven; 
 or in all about seven dollars. Laborers were paid eighty cents a 
 day. In 1816, coal sold at twelve dollars a chaldron. 
 
 One realizes the change and improvements wrought in Halifax 
 since 1804, when one finds that five quarts of seal oil for the street 
 "lantern " at the old Glebe House corner, costing five shillings, 
 were bought from time to time by the congregation. 
 
 It was customary, too, to send special messengers to Quebec, 
 Philadelphia or England, to carry letters or make purchases. From 
 these the modern " drummer" has doubtless been evolved. But 
 how changed is the environment. Now palace cars, or floating 
 drawing rooms, with every luxury waiting on his beck and nod ; 
 formerly the foul smelling, slowly moving, spaced-cramped schooner, 
 his only means of locomotion, whilst salt pork and biscuits constituted 
 his staple diet. Each traveler paid a certain amount for his passage 
 and then provided his own rations. As a sample of a forgotten 
 
77 
 
 mode of travelling, and also of prices then current, an extract 
 from the accounts of 1803, may not be devoid of interest. 
 
 1803. s. d. 
 
 Sept. 23 To sundries delivered to Mr. Shinick 
 for his passage 
 
 Cash for his passage 4 
 
 42 Ibs. fine biscuits 
 
 1 Ib. Souchong Tea 
 
 4 Ibs. Sugar 
 
 6 Ibs Butter 7.6, 13 Ibs. Pork 8.1 J. 
 i \ gal. best Brandy 
 
 2 doz. Cabbages 
 
 1 bus. Potatoes 
 
 15 Ibs. Beef 
 
 2 Flour Barrels to pack 
 
 i Plate, 3 d. 2 bottles Madeira 5 s. 
 
 8 12 i 
 
 Mr. Shinick was not, apparently, a teetotaler, yet the delicate 
 manner in which the brandy is sandwiched between the pork and 
 cabbages, should appear to suggest it was only an aid to digestion, 
 not a gratification of the palate that was intended. 
 
 In 1803, Nova Scotia was visited for the first time by a Bishop 
 of Quebec. One hundred and ninety-nine years had elapsed 
 since the torch of faith had been lighted on these shores ; for one 
 hundred and twenty-five years there had been a succession of 
 Bishops at Quebec claiming jurisdiction over the Church in this 
 country, but neither in time of peace, nor time of war did they 
 bless with their presence and Episcopal ministrations the faithful 
 Acadians. In June, 1803, Bishop Denaut was in Halifax and 
 wrote in the warden's book rules for their guidance. He was 
 presented with "two tumblers, gilt inside and plated outside" as the 
 item reads, and the cost was one pound fifteen shillings. The 
 Bishop found everything most satisfactory. He ordered that the 
 versicle "JDomine salvum fac Regem " (O Lord preserve our king) 
 should be sung after mass and at benediction. From a letter of 
 6 
 
78 
 
 Father Burke's to the Coadjutor, we learn that his Lordship's visit 
 was productive of much good, and that he was kindly received by 
 the dignitaries of the town, 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 LABOURS IN THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION. 
 
 O race developed so early in its history the intellectual 
 faculty, or brought it to greater perfection, than did the 
 all pervading Celt. Closely allied with, perhaps even the 
 progenators of the Phoenicians, the Celtic stock was the founder 
 of European literature, and for ages its zealous promoter and ardent 
 diffuser. That branch of the race which settled in Ireland, being 
 removed from proximity to the scenes of war and rapine that 
 obtained on the continent, early gave itself to the assiduous study of 
 the peaceful arts and sciences. The ancient literature of Ireland 
 was of a high order of merit; so, too, were its works of sculpture and 
 architecture, and other humanizing arts. The Irish Celt had never 
 been a barbarian ; the primeval heritage of Eden's civilization and 
 wisdom was brought by him down the ages, and carried with him in 
 his migrations westward. Settled in the security of Erin-, beyond the 
 orbit of internecine racial struggles, and even beyond the reach of 
 Rome's conquering arm, the intellectual Celt rapidly developed 
 and expanded his store of more than Egyptian knowledge. The 
 Christian religion so joyfully received by the Irish, gave a fresh im- 
 petus, as well as an enlarged scope, to art and science. We need 
 not repeat here the story of Ireland's famous schools, nor how the 
 nations flocked thither to slake their intellectual thirst at her foun- 
 tains of knowledge, nor how her sons bore the torch of learning 
 through the dark places of Europe and the Isles of the north. 
 Westward still was the instinctive trend of the Celt, and late in the 
 fifth, or early in the sixth century, Saint Brendan crossed the 
 Atlantic and blessed our continent with the sacred rites of Christi- 
 anity. Slowly, but surely, the voyage of Saint Brendan is 
 passing from the region of the mythical to the category of historical 
 facts. 
 
80 
 
 Forty centuries or more of intellectual culture indelibly impress- 
 ed its signet on the race, and transmitted inherited tendencies of 
 such accumulative force, that oppression, persecution, and slavery 
 could not degrade the Irish, nor modify in their descendants the 
 characteristics of their ancestors. So far as power ruthlessly em- 
 ployed could affect it, the acquisition of knowledge by the Irish 
 was for three hundred years made impossible. Yet they acquired 
 it. It was made a crime to teach ; yet they taught. They dared 
 not print books ; yet they wrote them. Before me lies a touching 
 memento of those sad days. It is a large manuscript volume of 
 nearly eleven hundred closely written pages, entitled "A brief col- 
 lection of the most useful and remarkable passages of church 
 history * * * for the ease and help of weak memories 
 of such as are desirous to know ; in brief, the affairs of the church 
 from Christ our Saviour's death and ascension to the beginning of 
 the lyth century." It is preceded by several pages called "A 
 general view of the terraqueous globe." It was written in 1726 by 
 C, P. P. of Athboy ; that is all the information vouchsafed us 
 regarding the industrious writer. Evidently he was parish priest of 
 Athboy ; probably he was living in some mountain cave, or in the 
 seclusion of some boggy glen, and doubtless there was a price on 
 his head. By stealth he would minister to the spiritual wants of 
 his faithful flock during the night, hieing back to his retreat ere the 
 glorious dawn afforded a guiding ray to the watchful priest-hunter. 
 After a short repose on his bed of heather, and a meal of roasted 
 potatoes, garnished on great occasions by a rasher of bacon, the 
 hunted scholar would take up his work of love, and translate and 
 condense from the Latin original of Cabassutins, this "Brief his- 
 tory of the church." What a striking proof of devotion to learning 
 is this rare old manuscript, written under such difficult conditions. 
 How nobly it sustains the bes: traditions of the Irish priesthood, 
 and demonstrates the invincible tendency of the race to intellectual 
 pursuits. 
 
 With the relaxation of the penal laws towards the end of the last 
 century began the new spring of Irish literature. Father Burke 
 had all the ardour of his fellow countrymen for the acquisition and 
 
81 
 
 spread of knowledge. He had been only a few months in Halifax 
 when he conceived the idea of establishing a college. The 
 Catholics of Halifax at that early day were fairly well educated. 
 We find in the register of marriages, that the bride and groom, as 
 well as the witnesses, signed their names in a good hand ; the 
 same is true of parents and sponsors as seen in the baptismal 
 register. This is a very honourable and noteworthy fact. 
 
 In Father Burke's second letter to the Coadjutor Bishop of 
 Quebec, 1 6th January, 1802, he writes: "here is something we 
 are working at quietly : there is a great desire to establish a 
 Catholic school. The need is a pressing one. * * * There are 
 sufficient means to guarantee success if we could succeed in 
 having repealed an infamous law which forbids Catholic schools. 
 We have reason to hope that we can effect this." 
 
 With Father Burke, to decide, was to act. Hence in July of the 
 same year, he writes : " our college is being built quite expeditious- 
 ly. It is a house of two stories, with kitchen and dining room in 
 the basement, as well as cellar and storeroom. It is sixty teet by 
 forty inside the walls." This building was known later on as 
 the Glebe House, and stood for eighty-nine years on the corner of 
 Barrington street and Spring Garden road. 
 
 The opening of a high school or college was a work dear to the 
 heart of Father Burke. In various letters he refers to the pro- 
 gress of the building, rejoicing as a room is finished, and eagerly 
 anticipating its entire completion. The material part of the work 
 he could and did speedily complete, for that fell within the scope 
 of his own personal energy. But to provide teachers was another 
 and very different task. His many letters show that no man could 
 well make greater, or more persevering efforts in that direction, and 
 yet for long weary years he was doomed to see hope after hope 
 blighted, just as it gave promise of a speedy realization. 
 
 The authorities of Quebec, and nationalities other than the Irish 
 and Scotch, would not willingly run the risk of displeasing the 
 Government. The penal laws had never existed in Quebec. By 
 treaty the rights of Catholics had been guaranteed, and outwardly, at 
 least, peace between Church and State obtained. The Ecclesiastical 
 
82 
 
 authorities of Quebec, fearful lest the Government should change its- 
 policy of tolerance towards them, it thwarted elsewhere, were over- 
 cautious or possibly over-timid in their actions in the Maritime 
 Provinces. They would not send priests to Acadia like the mission- 
 aries were sent to China, viz : without seeking or caring for the 
 permission of the Government. Hence as the Government wanted 
 one in Nova Scotia to calm the Indians and to minister to the few 
 returned exiles, they sent one only. So far back as 1771, Father 
 Bailly pointed out how a missionary might go quietly to Cap 
 Sable, and do much good amongst the scattered Acadian families, 
 but none went. Later on Father Jones showed the necessity of 
 sending a priest to St. Mary's Bay, and another to Windsor ; yet 
 none were sent. The Abbe Sigogne, and two other priests from 
 France, were not procured through any action on the part of the 
 Bishops of Quebec. The arrival on these shores of Irish and 
 Scotch priests quickly opened the. way to others. 
 
 Father Burke in a letter to Bishop Plessis, July i2th, 1802, has- 
 some remarks that bear on this point. He hoped to procure a 
 certain Father Ricchi, an Italian, for his college. He proposes that 
 he should come as his assistant, and quietly take up the work of 
 teaching, and adds, "the government will not have anything to say 
 to him, nor he to the government ; we Irish do not expect any- 
 thing from the government ; we have no position, and nothing to 
 rely on except our arms, which, thank God, are pretty strong." 
 
 From a subsequent letter we learn Father Ricchi wished to get 
 permission from the government, on which Father Burke causti- 
 cally remarks, "there is no use in asking help from the devil to 
 combat iniquity." 
 
 A Mrs. Blake gave a valuable property towards the college fund, 
 and temporal means amply sufficient were soon assured. Father 
 Burke wrote to the Archbishop of Dublin, and other Prelates in 
 Ireland for teachers, but in vain. There was a scarcity of priests in 
 Dublin, and the distracted state of Europe for many subsequent 
 years operated against him. Incidently we learn what manner of 
 man he sought. He says, "I do not seek a man without a fault,, 
 
83 
 
 such a one is not to be found. I want a man of talent with a good 
 foundation of religion." 
 
 The difficulty of obtaining teachers was not the only obstacle be- 
 tween Father Burke and the noble goal of his endeavours. 
 Then, as now, there were narrow minds that would fain force their 
 neighbours to drink at such streams of knowledge as they should 
 provide, or to remain forever athirst. On 2 ist September, 1803, 
 he writes, "to add to my trouble Bishop Inglis, aided by his clergy 
 and some other anti-Catholics, have succeeded by force of intrigue 
 in inducing the Lieutenant-Governor to refuse me a license to 
 open our school, although the law of the Province permits 
 it. This afflicts us sorely. This brave Bishop full of zeal has caused an 
 inquisition to be made to find out if there are any Catholic teachers 
 in the Province, in order to prosecute them according to the penal 
 laws. * * ) He has excluded the Presbyterians from the new 
 university unless they subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. * * 
 We Catholics are sending a petition to His Royal Highness the 
 Duke of Kent * * eventually they will be forced to grant 
 us what the law allows. In the meantime the righteous suffer."* 
 
 *In September, 1802, the Governor wrote Lord Hobart, Secretary of State, 
 that the Catholics were increasing in number and activity, and pays the follow- 
 ing involuntary tribute to Father Burke. We can see the force against which 
 the brave priest had to contend . 
 
 "They are stimulated by the Rev. Mr. Burke, the priest at Halifax, who 
 assumes the title of Vicar General of Nova Scotia. I had the honour to trans- 
 mit and solicit your lordships instructions upon his memorial, praying leave to 
 establish a Roman Catholic seminary in Halifax. The contributions expected 
 having partly failed, and I believe, suspecting that a public literary institution 
 for educating youth in this Province, wholly to be governed by a priesthood, 
 residing in Canada, and not subject to the visitation or control of fl. M. govern- 
 ment, or of the established Church of England, could not be countenanced or 
 permitted, he has in some degree changed the plan, and is erecting a large building 
 for charitable education of youth of their own Church. This may require more 
 consideration and caution than the former plan more openly designated. I 
 have accordingly notified Mr. Burke, that no school or seminary of education 
 could be exercised in this Province but such as were conformable to the laws 
 of England and of this province, confirmed hy his Majesty , and that without 
 your lordship's approbation, I should not presume to issue any license for any 
 such school. This notification was delivered officially to Mr. Burke, by Mr. 
 Uniacke, H. M. Attorney General for this province, but Mr. Burke still per- 
 sists in erecting tht building." 
 
 Of course he " persisted ;" that has been the fashion of his race in its long 
 and successful struggle against injustice. 
 
84 
 
 The activity and resources of Father Burke overcame this form- 
 idable obstacle, for he can write (i2th June, 1805) ''Lord Selkirk has 
 addressed the Secretary of State regarding the opening of our 
 school, and there will be no difficulty in obtaining passports 
 for teachers, but unfortunately none can be found." 
 
 What a side light is cast on the social condition of Europe by 
 the record of these fruitless attempts to procure a teacher or two. 
 For years the sword had been unsheathed amongst the nations, and 
 the pursuit of the peaceful arts and sciences impeded, or greatly 
 harassed. France that had been the prolific mother of courageous 
 missionaries, and Italy that had fostered in her bosom so many 
 eminent men of science, could lend no aid. The Society of the Jesuits 
 had been suppressed everywhere except in Russia. In 1805, they 
 were labouring in England, although not outwardly constituting a 
 society. Pius VII. had by "word of mouth" restored them where- 
 ever a Bishop wished to accept their services. Rev. Father Strick- 
 land was their Superior in England. Father Burke resolved to 
 apply to him for subjects, but later on deemed it best to write to 
 the General of the Order in St. Petersburg. In August, 1806, he 
 received an answer from the General Father Brezogowski. In it 
 the General says that the Society is ready to return to those regions 
 where formerly they sweated and toiled, and even shed their 
 blood ; but as they exist canonically only in Russia and Sicily, 
 although the Pope by word of mouth has permitted them to be 
 everywhere, he suggests that the Bishop of Quebec should apply 
 to the Pope for permission to have them labour in his diocese, as 
 Bishop Carroll of Baltimore had already done. He would be pre- 
 pared to send out two fathers the next spring to make a beginning. 
 In fact, as we learn from a letter of Father Strickland's, two priests 
 were named for the mission in Halifax, viz : " Fidelis Grivel a 
 Frenchman, and Felix Syglinski, a Pole," but Father Strickland adds: 
 " In the critical state in which the whole world is at present involved, 
 it is hard to say, or foresee to-day, what will happen to-morrow. All 
 therefore that the Superior-General or that I can promise is, that we 
 will do our endeavors to give the assistance you desire." The assist- 
 ance, however, never came. Whilst Pius VII. was personally most 
 
St. Mary's Glebe House. Halifax. N S. 
 
85 
 
 favourable to the suppressed Society, and was resolved to restore it 
 as he did later on, he thought in 1808, the time had not arrived for a 
 formal and public pronouncement on the question. The Congre- 
 gation of the Propaganda, according to both the Superior-General 
 Father Bre?ogowski, and Father Strickland, in their letters to 
 Father Burke, was not so favourable to the Society. Hence the 
 application of Bishop Plessis to Rome , made at the suggestion of 
 the Superior-General, did not meet with success. Father Strickland 
 writing from London 3ist July, 1808, says, he is not surprised at 
 this. He relates how he, knowing the Pope's favourable disposi- 
 tion towards the Society, and reflecting on the fact that in the 
 United Kingdom they never had the protection of government, 
 felt they could be reestablished without its consent. This is how 
 he set to work : " I got two memorials drawn up ; one signed by 
 myself and about a dozen of my brethren, petitioning leave to be 
 aggregated to our brethren in Russia ; the other signed by about 
 thirty of the principal nobility and gentry of the three kingdoms to 
 the same purpose, and ser.t them to Rome, wheie I procured them 
 to be privately presented to His Holiness. On reading them His 
 Holiness most readily consented to everything we asked of him, 
 and lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, he gave thanks to God 
 that the spirit of St. Ignatius still subsisted and declared it was the 
 happiest day he had seen since he was Pope. Being pressed to 
 give a public testimony of his approbation, he answered that it 
 was not necessary, and that he could not do it in prudence, as he 
 knew most certainly that such a deed would aggravate the perse- 
 cution of the Church, and involve the Holy See in fresh difficulties, 
 but that as soon as circumstances would permit it, he would not 
 fail to confirm the Society in the amplest manner. This answer 
 was communicated to the General of the Society the Rev. F. 
 Gruber, and by him to us by the Pope's express orders, * 
 On this footing we now stand, viz : on the vivae vocis oraculum 
 * Still stronger proofs of the Pope's approbation of 
 all we have done might be given ; but this I cannot give without 
 betraying a confidential communication, which might expose the 
 person of the Pope to new troubles." 
 
86 
 
 We have only given the merest summary of Father Burke's long 
 and earnest quest tor teachers ;* but it is amply sufficient to vindi- 
 cate him from any charge of indifference to the educational require- 
 ments of his mission, or of blame for the long delay which had yet 
 to intervene ere his hopes should be realized. We may add that 
 he proposed to the Bishop of Quebec to affiliate his school either 
 to the Seminary of Quebec, 01 that of Montreal, adding : " The 
 funds are in my hands, and I can dispose of them as I will without 
 consulting any one." But this project was never carried out. 
 
 To close this chapter, we may add that after the completion of 
 the college building, Father Burke, seeing no immediate prospect 
 of opening the school, rented the lower part to a Mr. Doyle. In a 
 letter of loth August. 1805, Father Burke relates that Mr. Doyle 
 whilst excavating the basement found a " spring of running water 
 capable of supplying half the town; we have put a pump in it." 
 That same spring < f deliciously cold water was used by the various 
 inmates of the old Glebe House for the next eighty five years. In 
 the new Glebe House it holds its place of honour and usefulness. 
 
 *The Jesuit Fathers in Baltimore named two of their number for Halifax, 
 but the troubles of the period prevented their coming. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 WITH TONGUE AND PEN. 
 
 N some natures strong literary tendencies, and studious habits 
 are mated with physical vigour, and an activity of spirit which 
 cannot be confined within the walls of a library. The indi- 
 vidual so endowed may never attain to a commanding rank in 
 literature, but. it he uses his talent aright, he will do more for the 
 cause of God and truth than the greatest masters of literary style. 
 The best balanced character, the character most desirable in a 
 churchman, in this country and age, is that in which the habits and 
 tastes of a student are cultivated, indeed, and encouraged, but 
 never indulged in at the expense of the active duties of the sacred 
 ministry. It is a question if this shutting oneself in a cabinet, and 
 being unapproachable to all, is not simply a mixture of selfishness 
 and an inane vanity to be considered peculiarly gifted above ones 
 fellows. In any case it is certain, that whilst men of true genius 
 are unaffected, and entirely free from peculiarities, the reverse is 
 believed by very many, and idios)ncrases, whether natural or 
 affected, are held to be the outward tokens by which genius is 
 revealed to the common herd. Hence the seclusion, the unap- 
 proachableness, the wild eye, the unkempt locks, the moody spells, 
 the shocking rudeness, the air of mystery, and other laughable, or 
 boorish expedients adopted by some, who thereby have gain- 
 ed the name of poet, artist, thinker, or genius. The world dearly 
 loves to be humbugged, and it is full often gratified 
 
 The qualities of the zealous missionary and of the industrious- 
 student were harmoniously combined in the mental structure of 
 Father Burke. He gave splendid proofs of the former during his 
 sojourn in western Canada ; nor did his activity cease after his 
 arrival in Halifax. We have already considered some of his work 
 here, but before passing on to his literary tournaments we must 
 note the gradual expansion of the Church under his supervision. 
 
88 
 
 His own letters, cited above, and the testimony of Bishop 
 Denaut who, on the occasion of his visit in 1803, found peace and 
 harmony, and a love of religion prevailing in the congregation of 
 Halifax, bear ample witness to the tact and zeal of the pastor, as 
 well as to the thoroughly solid nature of the instructions imparted 
 by him to his flock. Although he took no praise to himself for 
 this happy state of affairs, attributing it all to the good dispositions 
 of the people, we can gather from what he incidentally mentions in 
 a letter to the Bishop, that his share in the work was not light. On 
 23rd July, 1802, he says : "I have just received an account of the 
 Scotch Catholics settled at Cape Louis and neighboring districts. 
 They number about 1500. They are without a priest, excepting 
 when Mr. McEachan visits them." (The Rev. James McDonald had 
 become unfit for duty). "They tell me they expect two priests this 
 year, and that your Lordship has empowered Father McEachan to 
 give them faculties." Then he goes on to refer to the dangerous nature 
 of the practice of allowing the people to procure pastors, and cites 
 the difficulties that existed at Halifax as a case in point. In Sep- 
 tember, of the same year, he reports that the Church must be 
 enlarged, it is already too small, and "our congregation is increasing." 
 At that time there were seven warships of seventy-nine guns, and 
 several frigates in the harbour. They had come from Jamaica 
 under sealed orders, and until they had reached the "entrance of the 
 harbour not a soul on board, officer or sailor, except the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, knew whither they were going, * * if a vessel 
 appeared in sight the whole fleet raised the French flag, in order to 
 make English ships keep at a distance, and to deceive the Yankees." 
 He quaintly adds "even in this hell there are some saints." The 
 sailing master who gave this information was a "zealous and pious 
 Catholic." 
 
 In April, 1803, he writes that the "Scotch (Catholics) are gather- 
 ing in Pictou." In the summer of 1802, eight hundred Scotch 
 Catholics and two priests, had come to Nova Scotia, they settled 
 chiefly at Arisaig, in Pictou county. 
 
 In the summer of 1805, his congregation was suddenly augment- 
 ed by several hundred soldiers. He says : "Our new general on 
 
89 
 
 his arrival gave orders that the soldiers should attend whatever 
 Church they wished ; more than half the garrison came to us. 
 Nearly all the Germans, and all the Irish are Catholics * * * 
 we are terribly crowded, your Lordship must either send me a 
 priest to say an early mass, or grant me the privilege of duplicating 
 on Sundays and holidays." An incident that happened during 
 this same summer will serve to illustrate his sense of responsibility 
 and care for souls. A prominent member of the congregation had 
 given occasion for serious scandal. The man was truly repentant, 
 and as Father Burke says, "took all the means which I suggested to 
 atone for his fault. The wardens who had been so imprudent, and 
 several others, some through jealousy, others through other motives 
 perhaps equally unworthy, but all under the pretext of the glory of 
 God, have urged me most strongly to turn the man out of the 
 Church, and to let his pew to another. I shall not do either the 
 one or the other, what has to be done, is to rescue this man from 
 his misfortune, not to overwhelm him with despair." 
 
 In 1806, Father Grace was building a small church in his mis- 
 sions along the western shores of Halifax County. Father Lejamtel 
 was winning souls to Christ in Cape Breton ; The governor of 
 that island reproved him for receiving converts into the Church, 
 and forbade him to continue the practise ! This amiable governor 
 evidently imagined himself another Cromwell : but Father Burke 
 merely remarked : "that they have only to come to me and I shall 
 receive them, and laugh at his prohibitions." 
 
 It is well known that the first house of the Order of Trappists in 
 Canada is that at Tracadie, Nova Scotia ; it may not be equally 
 well known that some years before the arrival of Father Vincent, 
 its founder, Father Burke was desirous of introducing them, and 
 of locating them on land which he had acquired in Antigonish. 
 As we shall see he was largely instrumental in promoting the 
 foundation of their Monastery at Tracadie. 
 
 The success attending the labours of Father Burke ; the increase 
 both in numbers and influence of the Catholic Congregation ; and 
 perhaps, principally, his determination of opening a college, 
 aroused a spirit of hostility which soon found vent through the 
 
90 
 
 public press. We have seen how the Anglican Bishop Inglis 
 succeeded for a time in inducing the governor to refuse permission 
 for a Catholic school. The opponents of the Church dread nothing 
 more than real education. They may favour a knowledge of 
 languages and the sciences, indeed, but history and philosophy they 
 cannot abide. It is only by distorting history and suppressing 
 philosophy they can hope to exist. Bishop Inglis had a college, 
 built and endowed by Government ; he would brook no rival in 
 the field of education. Catholics and dissenters alike must 
 receive their college training after a manner approved of by 
 him, or remain in outer darkness. Father Burke was not the man 
 to bow to such lordly tyranny ; he even dared attack the would-be 
 tyrant. No small courage was required to do this in Halifax in 
 1804, when the Church of England was " by law established," and 
 the Catholics few, and in many respects under a ban. Intellectual 
 ability, too, was needed, and with this Father Burke was abundant- 
 ly furnished. 
 
 In February, 1804, Father Burke addressed a "Letter of instruc 
 tion to the Roman Catholic Missionaries of Nova Scotia and its 
 dependencies." In it he discusses very fully the nature of the Oath 
 of Allegiance required of priests, and shows that w'hilst it is in 
 part, insulting by implication, still it may be conscientiously taken. 
 After various instructions on this head, he adds : " Let us then, 
 my dear brethren and fellow-labourers, by our whole conduct, by our 
 public instruction and private advice, by all the influence which our 
 ministry gives, endeavor to silence misrepresentation. Actions are 
 more forcibly persuasive than protestations; let that universal benevo- 
 lence without distinction of friends or enemies which is the true char- 
 acteristic of Christianity, appear in our actions ; that meekness, that 
 modesty, that humility, that patience, which the Saviour enjoins, 
 distinguish us as Christians and disciples of a God who taught and 
 preached all these virtues in his adorable humanity. Let us not 
 only practice these virtues ourselves, but impress on the minds of 
 our respective flocks, the indispensable necessity of practising them 
 also : let us in a particular manner enforce that doctrine taught 
 by Christ and his Apostles, ' Obedience to the ruling powers in all 
 
91 
 
 simplicity and submission.' These are the moral principles of 
 Catholics, this is the doctrine taught in our churches, in our uni- 
 versities, in our schools; contained in our catechisms, in our 
 authentic professions of faith : there the principles which we 
 believe and profess are to be found, not in lying pamphlets. These 
 productions of ignorance, malevolence and fanatical phrensy, which 
 wild enthusiasts, and canting hypocrites, self-taught and self-constitut- 
 ed teachers and judges of the world, disseminate without number." 
 
 The letter contains nothing which should excite the ire of any- 
 one; but a postscript is added which constitutes the first shot of the 
 controversial campaign on the part of Father Burke, It explains, 
 also, why it was fired. He says : "The last sheet of this letter was 
 in the press, when a charge from a Prelate of the established Church 
 accidently fell into my hands. What was my astonishment at 
 seeing an official letter, from, a man high in office, added to the 
 many pamphlets which already disgrace our language, manifestly 
 tending to excite dissensions and discontents, at a time when sound 
 policy dictates the indispensable necessity of unanimity, and when 
 all good men are endeavouring to draw more close the bonds of 
 society." The ball is started with a strong initial velocity, and it 
 does not decrease as it proceeds. "The Prelate in his great liber- 
 ality pretends to exclude from the public schools, all non-Conform- 
 ists and Roman Catholics * * he may rest assured that few 
 Catholics or non-Conformists are envious of the sock of science 
 which he possesses." Again : "The Prelate recites the tragical 
 events of the seventeenth century, the murder of Charles the first, 
 and thence takes occasion to make strong allusions and invidious 
 insinuations against the non-Conformists of the present day. Surely 
 the good man does not suspect any of those now living to have 
 imbrued their hands in the King's blood." How clearly and 
 accurately he distinguishes between the truth or falsity of a relig- 
 ious belief, and the civil rights of the individual, appears from the 
 following extract. 
 
 "The Prelate roundly asserts that the the tenets of the Methodists 
 are hostile to good government. With one dash of his pen he 
 stigmatises a great proportion of the inhabitants of this province, 
 
92 
 
 sober, industrious, inoffensive men. Upon a close investigation of 
 their tenets, as assigned by him, I can discover nothing hostile to 
 government. A man may be subject to the illusions of a heated 
 imagination, without being an enemy to the state, or to any one 
 member of the state. Agitations or contortions may make him an 
 object of pity, or even a fit subject of ridicule, but not a rogue or a 
 rebel, * * he may roll himself on the floor, distort his eyes r 
 his mouth, and nose to expel the devil. What then ? Call it 
 simplicity, folly, stupidity, extravagance, give it what name you 
 please, but it is not treason, nor any offence against the law." 
 
 Of course the poor Catholics fared badly at the hands of the 
 irate Prelate. On this head Father Burke says : "That part of the 
 charge which describeh the pretended superstitions of Catholics, and 
 the abandoned profligacy of the clergy, is a mere echo which 
 repeats calumnies as often refuted as published." He promises a 
 full and fair discussion of the whole charge, and to set forth the 
 genuine principles of Catholic morality. His opinion of the 
 Bishop's charge is not flattering : "I don't remember to have seen 
 a more wretched performance ; it seems composed of borrowed 
 pieces badly assorted, written in a languid style, replete with dark 
 insinuations against all those who have the misfortune to disagree in 
 opinion with the author." 
 
 This daring and unexpected assault ruffled his Lordship, and 
 created consternation in the camp of his admirers. It was all very 
 well to denounce and vilify dissenters and Catholics, but that one 
 of the vilified should turn and fiercely grapple with the head of 
 the Church "by law established" was intolerable, yet it had to be 
 borne ; for Father Burke was now a recognized factor in the com- 
 munity, and his ready pen, and courteous manner of controversy, 
 in striking contrast with that of some of his assailants, did valiant 
 service in the cause of truth and equal rights, for many years. From 
 a letter written to the Coadjutor Bishop of Quebec, iyth July, 
 1804, we learn Father Burke's view of the case. "Our Bishop 
 Inglis was completely upset by the dose he received. It is good for 
 him ; perhaps it will cure him of his itch for calumniating Catholics, 
 all of whom this bad man would annihilate, if he could. During 
 
93 
 
 six months he and his pretentious son, did not cease to cover us 
 with obliquy in the Church of Halifax, before publishing his 
 calumnies, and the good man had so blackened us that people be- 
 gan to mistrust us. The devil is the father of lies, and those who 
 are of his part imitate him, says the wise man. The postscript was 
 severe ; I shall tone it down." 
 
 As was to be expected writers innumerable seized the quill, and the 
 newspapers of the day became the theatre of a wordy war. 
 Father Burke singled out for attack the Rev. Mr. Stanser, afterwards 
 Bishop, and Rev. Mr. Cochran, President of Windsor College, and 
 replied to them in a pamphlet of over two hundred pages, printed 
 by A. Gay, 1805. Subsequently he took up the letters of other 
 correspondents, and gave very complete refutations of their 
 attempted impeachment of Catholic doctrine and practises. Al- 
 though his thrusts were keen, and his blows direct, he never lost his 
 temper, ror indulged in abuse, that universal resource of the shal- 
 low controversialist. In 1805, Judge Cochran was drowned in 
 Lake Ontario, the Rev. Mr. Cochran lost his place as President of 
 Windsor College, and the wife of a third opponent "played him a 
 bad trick," as Father Burke relates in a letter to the Bishop of 
 Quebec. These events apparently ended the first campaign. 
 
 Later on the Rev. Mr. McCullough, a Presbyterian minister at 
 Pictou, brought out a pamphlet, " Popery condemned," which drew 
 forth a reply of more than three hundred pages from Father Burke, 
 bristling with facts and unanswerable arguments. 
 
 Thus with tongue and pen he was at work, spreading the truths 
 of religion, strengthening the faith of Catholics, giving them reason 
 to rejoice at his eminent scholarship, dissipating the misconceptions 
 of the well-meaning, silencing detractors, and winning respect for 
 himself, and for his religious belief. How well he did all this, his 
 own Bishop will tell us in another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 HALIFAX IN 1815. 
 
 HE subject of these Memoirs had now laboured for fourteen 
 years in Halifax. Single handed he had attended to the 
 spiritual wants of his flock in the town, and directed the 
 operations of the missionaries, in the various parts of the large terri- 
 tory over which he had supervision. He had also ably explained 
 and defended many points of Catholic belief through the press, and 
 had completed the manuscript of an important work on " The min- 
 istry of the Church," which he purposed publishing in Ireland. 
 After thirty years of arduous labour in Canada, and being now in 
 his sixty-third year, he might well claim a short respite from work, and 
 the pleasure of revisiting his country. 
 
 In a comparatively new and small community, such as Halifax 
 was during these fourteen years of his ministry, a man of Father 
 Burke's mental and moral parts, must have exercised no small 
 influence in moulding public thought, and in establishing whatever 
 social relations existed between Catholics and Protestants. His 
 high literary attainments had commanded the respect of all; his 
 zeal in the discharge of his spiritual duties had won the love of his 
 people : and his manly championship of his faith, combined with an 
 affability of manner, and respect for the honest opinions of others, 
 had broken down the prejudices of the past. A brief survey of 
 Halifax, in 1815, will be interesting historically, and it will enable us 
 to guage more accurately the result of Father Burke's years of toil. 
 To those who have been born within ear-shot of the screech of 
 steam engines, the whistle of steamers, and the click of the telegraph 
 operator, the Halifax of 1815 will appear almost mythical in its 
 quaint primitiveness. If they can be persuaded that there were no 
 steamers, no railroads, no telegraph poles, they will never admit 
 that life could have had its joys, and society its amusements, men 
 
95 
 
 their hopes and ambitions, and women their glamoured romances, 
 e'en as they are had to-day. 
 
 Taking up the " Acadian Recorder," of 1815, (a paper still pub- 
 lished in Halifax), we read in the issue of i4th January, that it had 
 " 1300 subscribers, of whom forty had been added since the first of 
 the month." The editor had been modest in his forecast, for he 
 assures us '* such unprecedented success has far exceeded our ex- 
 pectations." We learn also that smallpox continued, especially 
 " among the negroes and' poor."* There was little or no local 
 news. In fact that which we should wish to have is not there. In 
 its stead we have clif pings from English and United States papers. 
 Ships of war were on the move, and troop-ships scurrying from port 
 to port. 
 
 On January 28th, we have late news from Quebec of 2oth Decem- 
 ber. Coming down to May we light on many items regarding the 
 state of France, one of which informs us that Bonaparte's carriage 
 broke down as he reached the barrier of Paris. Looking on it as 
 an evil omen his wrath was without bounds. On 3rd June, the 
 editor tells us that he had been favoured with Liverpool papers of 
 i5th April, and Cork ones of 22nd April. Issue of July 22nd 
 reports arrival of ship "Trial," thirty five days from London, twenty- 
 five days from Land's End On 26th June, off Cowes, ship spoke 
 Plymouth pilot who told of reported defeat of Napoleon, near 
 Brussels, witn loss of 40,000 men and 150 pieces of ordnance. 
 This was the first news of the battle of Waterloo. In the issue of 
 August 5th, Wellington's report of the battle is published. 
 
 News travelled slowly in those days. Now we should expect 
 Wellington's despatch, almost before he had dried the ink by using 
 as a blotter the drum which had served for a desk, The unhealthy, 
 feverish excitement of to-day, a disease unknown in 1815, goes far 
 to offset many of the disadvantages of that period. The Haligonian 
 of that day was not less happy because he did not breakfast on the 
 crimes of the world, and sup on its scandals. 
 
 *Smallpox had carried off many victims in 1801 
 
96 
 
 Let us now see what Halifax was like in its material aspect, and 
 also in its religious and social state. We have not to draw on our 
 imagination for our facts, nor have we to trust to uncertain tradi- 
 tions, or memories liable to fail. We have the shrewd and appre- 
 ciative observations of a cultured stranger, jotted down at the time. 
 Bishop Plessis of Quebec visited Halifax, and other parts of Nova 
 Scotia, in his official capacity, in 1815, and kept a diary, hitherto 
 unpublished. From it we shall quote extensively. 
 
 His Lordship and suite left Quebec on 2Oth May, and after having 
 visited Cap Chat, Arichat, Louisburg, Sydney and Bras d'Or, arrived 
 offHalifax on i4th July. Nearing the harbour he says : " One notices 
 here and there, some fine settlements ; well built houses, meadows 
 abounding in hay, and vast fields of potatoes, but little grain 
 except rye, buckwheat and oats, and these in small quantities 
 only * * We passed Devil's Island before arriving at Halifax 
 harbour, formerly called Chebucto, This harbour has two separate 
 entrances formed by several islands, some of which are covered 
 with cheerful looking houses. The nearer one 
 
 approaches Halifax along the coast the more interesting do its 
 surroundings become. * * The most striking edifice is that 
 containing the town clock. It is a square tower, and its ground 
 flat which is very large, is occupied as a guard house. * 
 Its situation is extremely well chosen. 
 
 "Soon after this the barracks of the troops came into view, and 
 then those of the artillery, both situated in the upper part of the 
 town. The citadel with its flag, and signal staff, is visible at the 
 same time. After this we see the steeples of the various churches, 
 and then other buildings, public as well as private, which seem to 
 vie with each other in the beauty of their situation, and the variety 
 of their style. At last the whole city displays itself in the most 
 advantageous manner. It has the form of a parallelogram placed 
 upon the slope of a hill, which rises from a bay, the head of which 
 is more than nine miles to the northwest of the town. Six large 
 streets run parallel with the water ; these are intersected by ten 
 cross streets. Water street is half a mile in length, and is bordered 
 with houses from one end to the other. The remaining streets are 
 
97 
 
 being rapidly built up. One could not believe it possible that such 
 noble houses as those in the upper part of the town, could be built 
 of wood. Among others may be mentioned the house of the Chief 
 Justice, of the Collector of Customs, and the one occupied by 
 Major General Gosselin, built by the Duke of Kent, and now the 
 property of the Government. To these we may add the Freemason 
 Hall, and the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches. The Catholic 
 Church is inferior to these, but in a few years it will surpass them 
 all, if the members of the congregation persevere in their project 
 of building a stone church upon a much larger plan." Needless to 
 say they did persevere, and old St. Mary's soon confirmed the pro- 
 phecy of the observant Bishop. The diary continues : " A great 
 number of houses are finished with a flat roof, others have flat 
 roofs on the wings, and a sloping one on the main building. One 
 must come to Halifax to find handsome porticos, superb entrance 
 doors and steps, broad stairways, and noble and well furnished 
 apartments." 
 
 " The only public building, up to the present, built of stone, is the 
 Governor's house. The stone is grey, and comes from Pictou. 
 It is easily cut, and is here held in great repute. Some private 
 individuals have used it to make columns, from eight to ten feet in 
 height, to finish off the railings in front of their houses. With this 
 same stone they are now building a hall, which will accomodate 
 both Houses of the Provincial Parliament, also another house above 
 the dock-yard, for the Admiral of this Station, and a third one for 
 some officers of the Marine Department. These three edifices, 
 now well advanced towards completion, cannot fail to greatly 
 embellish the town." 
 
 The position and general aspect of the dockyard, are described 
 with a lively appreciation of the order and cleanliness prevailing. 
 Of the streets, he writes : " Excepting the sidewalks, the streets are 
 not paved, but are covered with a kind of gravel or coarse sand, 
 which dries as soon as the rain ceases to fall. They are gener- 
 ally kept extremely clean, and in m.my places are ornamented on 
 both sides by willows, from which the tops are lopped off from time 
 
98 
 
 to time, causing them to spread out, and thus affording as much 
 shade as the linden and limes of Canada." 
 
 "Halifax is not surrounded by walls, or parapets, but is guarded 
 by well entrenched batteries, placed in different parts of the town. 
 St. George's Island, in front of the town, is remarkably well forti- 
 fied. Towers and batteries are scattered around the harbour, at 
 short distances apart. Signal stations are also numerous, so as not 
 to leave the government in ignorance of any danger that may 
 threaten the place, even from a great distance out at sea." He 
 tells how Sambro, twenty miles off, could sustain a first attack, and 
 warn the city by signals of the danger, and adds : " Thus in the 
 late war no United States vessel dared to make the least attempt 
 upon this place." 
 
 In reading these extracts from the diary of Bishop Plessis, we 
 must bear in mind, that apart from his rank and position, he was 
 a most remarkable man, perhaps, the ablest of Quebec's long and 
 illustrious line of Bishops. As his jottings were not intended for 
 publication, we have an additional guarantee of their sincerity. He 
 tells us he was anxious to reach Halifax, in order to meet Father 
 Burke before his departure for Ireland, and only the happy chance 
 of adverse winds, which had detained the packet in port, enabled 
 him to do this. He praises the noble hospitality of Father Burke, 
 who had entertained at his own expense, for several weeks, some 
 Trappist Fathers, and three Ursiline Nuns from New York, on their 
 way to Ireland. His reference to the old historic Glebe House of 
 St. Mary's, will not be devoid of interest. He says : "The Bishop 
 and his companions went at once to the house where they were 
 expected, and there had the pleasure of finding Mr. Burke, who 
 did not sail until two days later. This house is not the presbytery, 
 but it stands on the same ground, and belongs to the Catholic 
 congregation who built it more than twelve years ago, with the idea 
 of establishing a college therein. This scheme they have not so 
 far been able to carry out * * the house is let at a low 
 
 rent to a catholic me chant named Laurence Doyle." This was 
 the father of the late well known Laurence O'Connor Doyle. The 
 Bishop continues : " It is, however, vdy large, so that without dis 
 
99 
 
 turbing this family who occupy the lower part, Father Burke intends, 
 on his return, to live there, and to leave the old presbytery to his 
 assistant Father Mignault" 
 
 After this ordered and minute description, it requires no great 
 effort of the imagination to bring before our mind's eye the Halifax 
 of 1815. Then, as now, Halifax impressed visitors by the unsur- 
 passed beauty of its approaches and surroundings, and its undefined 
 air of quiet strength and repose. 
 
 The Bishop gives us an insight of the existing social relations, 
 from which we can see that once the dreary incubus of New Eng- 
 land bigotry had been shaken off, Halifax became the first city in 
 the English speaking world in which the most friendly feeling- 
 between Catholics and Protestants was engendered. No city in the 
 United States or in Canada, is to-day as far advanced in that 
 respect, as Halifax was in 1815. The diary informs us that " On 
 the day after his arrival, the Bishop of Quebec hastened to pay his 
 respects to the Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Sherbrooke, and to 
 Admira Griffiths. The Admiral upon hearing that we intended 
 visiting the missions of Chezzetcook and Prospect, obligingly offeied 
 to send us in one of the naval boats. * * The Governor, not 
 to be outdone in politeness by the Admiral, made the Bishop a 
 thousand offers of kindnesses, which were shown to be sincere by 
 the promptness with which he set about restoring to a certain 
 number of the Acadians of Chezzetcook a tract of five thousand 
 acres of land, of which they appeared to have been unjustly dis- 
 possessed" * * It appears, from the diary, that up to that 
 period no church bell was rung on Sunday's before ten o'clock, the 
 hour at which the bell of the Anglican Church rang out. A word 
 to the Governor on this point " freed," as the Bishop says, " the 
 Catholic Church from this servitude for the future." He also 
 praises the Governor for the readiness with which he entered into 
 the Bishop's views for the temporal and spiritual good of the Indians 
 in the vicinity of Halifax, and adds : " That is what one might call 
 a liberal and well intentioned man.' 3 Dr. Cochran and Dr. Inglis 
 son of the then Bishop, as well as the chief personages of Halifax, 
 called on the Bishop of Quebec, during his short stay in the town. 
 
100 
 
 There is an entry in the diary which may interest our Anglican 
 friends. After noting that Bishop Inglis had " fallen into second 
 childhood," he says of his son : u Dr. Inglis, regardless of the 
 Canons of the Church, wishes to succeed to the Bishopric, to make 
 sure of it, even during his father's lifetime, and has taken steps to- 
 wards this end in England. Unfortunately His Majesty's ministers 
 before passing their word, consulted General Sherbrooke, who in 
 sounding public opinion has found the united suffrage to be in 
 favour of Dr. Stanser, Rector of St. Paul's, Halifax. This gentle- 
 man came hither with very favourable recommendations and 
 testimonials ; he has just gone over to England, whence it is sup- 
 posed he will bring back the Coadjutorship and right of succession. r 
 
 His Lordship was entertained at dinner by the Admiral, and also 
 by the Governor, where he met all the notabilities of Halifax. On 
 both occasions he appeared in his Episcopal robes, a fact worthy 
 of note in those days, and most creditable to the good sense both 
 of the Bishop and the distinguished society which greeted him. 
 
 He had expected merely a "long boat" to carry him to Chezzet- 
 cook, but the Admiral sent a "naval tender," or sloop of war called 
 the " Jane," carrying five guns. Incidentally we learn that the 
 dinner hour was much earlier than at present. Speaking of a 
 dinner given him by Major General Gosselin, cammander of the 
 garrison, on the day he was to return from Prospect, the Bishop 
 says : " five o'clock was the hour named, fearing that the voyage 
 from Prospect might take more than was at first expected." Hence 
 the ordinary dinner hour must have been considerable earlier than 
 five. 
 
 Wecan easily gather from this record of the various acts of courtesy 
 and hospitality extended to his lordship, as well as from the 
 number who called to pay their respects, that Father Burke had not 
 laboured in vain. His character and attainments had no small 
 share in producing the harmony and good will that existed in 
 Halifax. 
 
 On religious matters, the diary is not silent. " There are," it 
 says, in Nova Scotia, a great number of sects, Anglicans, Presbyte- 
 rians, Baptists, Arminians, Socinians, Methodists, New Lights, &c. 
 
101 
 
 Each has its preachers and churches, great or small. The New- 
 Lights perhaps do not predominate over the others in Halifax, but 
 they are certainly the dominant sect of the province. The 
 Anglican clergy offer them all the opposition in their power.'' 
 
 It is, however, when he treats of the state of catholicity in Hali- 
 fax, that we can realize, and appreciate, the apostolic labours of 
 Father Burke during the fourteen years of his ministry. Bearing in 
 mind the dissensions that existed before, and at his arrival ; and,, 
 also, that he had been busily engaged in numerous sharp contro- 
 versies during these years, our admiration of his many good 
 qualities of head and heart will be amply justified. Until a few- 
 months before the Bishop's arrival he had no assistant. The con- 
 dition of the flock is a good index of the pastor's spirit. In this- 
 case there was no one to share the praise or blame. Such as it 
 was, it was his alone. The diary says : 
 
 u In the midst of this crowd of sects the Catholic religion is 
 conspicuous by its unity, and by the general esteem in which its 
 adherents are held. In consequence of some old government pre- 
 judice Catholics are excluded from all prominent places in the- 
 Council, at the Bar, and in the House of Representatives. Is this 
 a misfortune for them ? No, for the fewer the pretentions men have- 
 to earthly honours, the more as it is universally admitted, do they 
 raise themselves towards the only solid hope, the heritage of heaven. 
 Merchants, many of whom have pretty compact fortunes, workmen,, 
 farmers and domestics, compose the Catholic Church of Halifax 
 If it is not conspicuous by the rank which its children hold in the 
 world, it is so by their fervour and the docility of their faith. The 
 idea has never occurred to these Catholics that their religion is; 
 restricted to attendance at Mass and a liking for good sermons. 
 When one reflects that out of about six hundred communicants 
 there were not ten who had neglected the sacraments in Lent ; when* 
 one sees them as diligent in attending Mass on week days as they 
 were during the Bishop's stay amongst them ; when one is witness 
 to the eagerness with which they besieged the confessional, to the 
 extent of keeping two or three priests busy during entire mornings;; 
 when one finds the sacristy full of children who come every day 
 
102 
 
 to catechism, the girls in the morning, the boys in the evening, 
 when one hears of the ambition of the parents to procure for their 
 children a place among those who serve in the Sanctuary, nothing 
 more is needed to convince one that the spirit of religion is as 
 fervent here as in any other Christian community of the Diocese of 
 Quebec. 
 
 " Take in addition the great respect shown by the faithful to 
 the pastors who lead them, the docility of their Church wardens, 
 a class of persons who are sometimes torments to the parish 
 priests of Canada, the zeal with which they come forward to con- 
 tribute towards the repairing, or rebuilding of their too small church 
 in a collection which already amounts to more than two thousand 
 pounds sterling. None but fervent Catholics can unite so many 
 -excellent qualities. 
 
 u Besides those who are Irish, either by birth or origin, and these 
 form the great majority ot the parish, there are persons of different 
 nationalities, some domiciled, others migratory, such as the Aca- 
 dian boatmen, soldiers, sailors and negroes. The result of this is 
 that in a parish of six hundred communicants, there is more work 
 than in many a one of two thousand. 
 
 " It was to this congregation, assembled on the Sunday after 
 his arrival, that the Bishop preached in English, badly enough pro- 
 nounced, but nevertheless sufficiently well understood by those to 
 whom he spoke, as well as by the Protestants to whom he did not 
 speak, but whom curiosity had drawn in great numbers to the 
 church. Thirty-four persons were confirmed that day, the remainder 
 were reserved for the following Sunday. A much larger number 
 communicated. Nothing could be more edifying than the deport- 
 ment of these people in the Church, and the modesty with which 
 they presented themselves for Communion. The organ, played 
 by a young Catholic, accompanied the Roman chant." 
 
 We doubt if ever a Bishop gave more magnificent testimony to 
 the work of a pastor as seen in its results, than we here find set 
 down by Bishop Plessis in his private diary, presumably intended 
 for no eyes but his own. No words of ours can add weight to the 
 splendid eulogium; it proves beyond the slightest preadventure that 
 
103 
 
 he who had given proof of a great missionary spirit in the wild west, 
 here in the most polished town on this continent, gave equal proof 
 of high mental and moral qualities, and a capacity for leading 
 cultivated souls in the higher paths of the spiritual life. How busy 
 the days, aye, and the nights of Father Burke must have been, we 
 can judge from the amount of literary work performed, whilst 
 thus faithfully attending to the spiritual wants of a congregation, 
 which as the Bishop remarks, demanded more labour than many 
 another of two thousand communicants. Whilst nothing is lacking 
 to the completeness of this testimony to the worth of Father Burke 
 and his congregation, one who has more ample sources of 
 knowledge than had Bishop Plessis, can repeat of the flock of to- 
 day the words written in 1815. 
 
 Mr. Doyle who had rented the Glebe House, gave a dinner 
 to which a number of the principal Catholics were invited to meet 
 the Bishop. His Lordship slyly remarks : " The conversation 
 turned generally on religious topics ; but while speaking of edifying 
 matters, these good Irishmen were most unsparing of the wine." 
 
 His Lordship left Halifax for Digby County. A Mr. Conroy 
 supplied horses and a carriage for the Bishop and his Secretary, 
 and a huge van for the luggage. From the accounts of the Church 
 we learn that forty-seven pounds were paid for conveying the party 
 to Annapolis. Possibly the taxes are higher now than then, but 
 we can travel much more cheaply, and immeasurably more com- 
 fortably. The Bishop has a good word for the roads ; he tells us, 
 also, that dinner at the first inn * cost twenty-seven shillings, u a 
 presage," he mournfully exclaims, " of what we would have to pay 
 before reaching our journey's end." Yet this dark cloud had its 
 silver lining, for he gleefully adds : " This first amount was not 
 expended by us, but by Dr. Keegan, a Catholic physician who had 
 wished to accompany us this far." 
 
 Before taking final leave of this chatty and interesting diary, we 
 will give one more extract : 
 
 ' We were to stay that evening at a superb country house, belonging 
 
 * At or near Bedford. 
 
104 
 
 to Mr.Uniacke, (the elder), a member of Council, Attorney General,. 
 Judge of the Admiralty, &c., who had urgently entreated the Bishop 
 to rest there in passing. It is nine leagues from the town. * * We 
 arrived very late. Madam Uniacke and Lady Mitchel, her step- 
 daughter, received us with as much courtesy as these English ladies, 
 stiff and starched as the) usually are can show. * After tea to each 
 of us was apportioned an immense room perfectly furnished with 
 chairs, tables, chests of drawers, stoves (mounted all the year 
 round it appeared), and excellent beds, each large enough to accom- 
 modate a whole family. The following morning we had time to 
 look at this immense and costly house with its innumerable depend- 
 encies, bath rooms, billiard rooms, balconies, servants' quarters, well 
 kept groves on the borders of a large and rather deep lake, the 
 waters of which are carried to the sea by several small streams ; 
 nothing that could render this place charming has been neglected.'* 
 With an eye to the practical side of life, he remarks that scarcely 
 any grain is grown on this fine property, and hence it returns 
 nothing for the lavish outlay ; then he mildly moralizes on the taste 
 of men, some hoard through avarice, others spend through vanity, 
 or for pleasure, and adds : " Life passes in various occupations, 
 and they do not think of eternity." After breakfast, which was served 
 with the u same elegance and ceremony" of the night before, the party 
 " re-entered their carriage ; the cart received its load, and we left 
 for Windsor." 
 
 Our readers will join in wishing a hearty ban voyage to the 
 amiable and observant Bishop, for having given us such pleasant 
 glimpses of Halifax in one thousand eight hundred and fifteen. 
 
 * Mrs. Uniacke was not however an English woman. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TRAVELLING. 
 
 |HILST Bishop Plessis was wending his way, by easy 
 stages, to St. Mary's Bay, Father Burke was being 
 tossed drearily along on the broad Atlantic. For two 
 or three years he had been suffering from an internal 
 complaint, which only the knife of a skilled surgeon could relieve. 
 As he had expressed it in a letter to the Bishop, " although it did 
 not prevent him from working, it was silently undermining his 
 health." But he could not, and would not leave his post at Halifax 
 until there was some one to take his place. At length the Bishop 
 sent him an assistant in the person of Rev. Mr. Mignault, who 
 came in October, 1814, and exercised his ministry in Halifax until 
 the summer of 1817. The last act in the register bearing his signa- 
 ture is dated 2ist August of that year. 
 
 Whilst Father Burke was contemplating a trip to Europe in the 
 spring of 1815, an event transpired which enabled him to make 
 better provision for the spiritual wants of his flock than he had 
 dared hope. It was also the beginning of the realization of his 
 dream of founding a Trappist Monastery in Eastern Nova Scotia, 
 In the year 1812, Father* Vincent was sent from France with some 
 of his brother Monks to found a Trappist Monastery in the United 
 States. An attempt was made in Maryland, but soon abandoned. 
 A site was next chosen near New York, but in 1814, the Superior 
 with the greater part of the community returned to France, and 
 Father Vincent was ordered to follow with the remainder, so soon 
 as he should have arranged his affairs. During the winter two of 
 the community died, and in the spring Father Vincent and four 
 others sailed for Halifax. Here they found a ship for Europe. 
 Whilst waiting for a favourable wind Father Vincent came ashore 
 one morning. A breeze sprang up suddenly ; the captain weighed 
 
106 
 
 anchor and sailed swiftly out to sea, leaving Father Vincent behind. 
 Later on he received permission from his Superior to remain in 
 Nova Scotia. Father Burke appointed him to assist Rev. Mr. 
 Mignault in Halifax, and to attend occasionally the Acadians at 
 Chezzetcook. Having made this provision for the spiritual wants of 
 his people, Father Burke was free to depart. 
 
 In the vessel by which Father Vincent and his brother Monks 
 had come from New York to Halifax, there came also three Nuns 
 of the Order of Ursilines. These ladies had gone from Cork some 
 three years previously, to found a house in New York. Various 
 circumstances combined to discourage them, and the Superioress 
 in Ireland had written them to return. For several weeks Father 
 Burke supported both the Trappists and Nuns at his own expense, 
 a fact which Bishop Plessis reveals to us in his diary. Two 
 daughters of Mr. Doyle, and two of Mr. James Tobin, desirous of 
 being educated in an Irish convent, embarked with the Nuns and 
 Father Burke, for Cork. They sailed on the i6th July, 1815, and 
 must have had a favourable passage, for Father Burke writes from 
 Cork on i6th August, saying : " Here I am at Cork after a most 
 prosperous voyage, without accident of any sort. * * The 
 Bishop is absent, but is expected home from day to day. The 
 question of the ' Veto '* is renewed, and is warmly discussed. I 
 find a very strong opposition to it amongst the clergy, and also 
 amongst the people who do not wish to hear it even mentioned." 
 The forests of Western Canada, and the magnificent surroundings 
 of Halifax were forgotten when the eyes of the veteran missionary 
 viewed again the quiet beauties of Erin. He exclaims : "Ireland 
 appears more beautiful to me than ever. It is assuredly the most 
 charming country of the world. You must see it with your own 
 eyes in order to realize all its beauties." 
 
 *The Government was prepared to give a stipend to the Clergy provided 
 it were granted the right of Veto in the appointment of Bishops. Some 
 Catholics were in favour of this compromise, but O'Connell and the Irish 
 Bishops almost to a man opposed it. Father Burke in various letters 
 shows his hostility to it. 
 
107 
 
 He writes from London 2ist September, and relates with joy 
 that the Bishops of Ireland had refused to submit to the Veto, al- 
 though the Pope appeared inclined to favour it, and adds that 
 should one be appointed by the government, the people would not 
 recognize him. It will be seen from this that although Father 
 Burke was always a staunch and loyal supporter of the government, 
 and on close terms of intimacy with its leading representatives 
 both at Quebec and Halifax, he would never consent to barter the 
 freedom of the Church, in the appointment of its chief pastors, for 
 a mess of potage in the shape of some civil rights for the laity and 
 a stipend for the clergy. 
 
 He had a fair collection of books in his library at Halifax, but 
 he bought in London the " Fathers of the Church which I have 
 not already," and he was on the look out for the " Annals of 
 Baronius, and a collection of the Councils." The student was 
 not swallowed up in the traveller. 
 
 Whilst in London, he wrote and forwarded to Rome a lengthy 
 document, in which he gives a graphic account of British North 
 America, from an ecclesiastical standpoint. 
 
 With his characteristic outspokenness he tells the Cardinal Pre- 
 fect of Propaganda of the commotion excited in Ireland by reason 
 of his letter on the question of the Veto, lately sent to the Bishops. 
 How the people were crying out that whilst their fathers for genera- 
 lions had borne persecution, but had kept the faith, now a great 
 danger menaced it, the Pope having been deceived by his and their 
 enemies- 
 Speaking of the state of religion in British North America he 
 points outag;ain the necessity of erecting one or two more Dioceses 
 in Lower Canada, suggesting Montreal and Three Rivers as the 
 new Sees, For Upper Canada, in which he says there were only 
 about three priests, adding " can there be found in the whole 
 world a country inhabited by civilized beings in such an abandon- 
 ed state." He suggests that it be divided into two or three Pre- 
 fectures. The Prefect Apostolic of the Kingston district should be 
 "Scotch or English, or Irish; preferably a Scotchman, as the greater 
 
108 
 
 number of the inhabitants are of Scottish descent." Similarly in 
 the Maritime Provinces Prefectures should be erected. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that Father Burke was now intimately 
 acquainted with the whole country, more so perhaps than any 
 living man. He had worked eight years in the Province of Quebec, 
 seven in Western Canada, and fourteen in the Maritime Provinces. 
 Keenly realizing the inadequacy of the existing Ecclesiastical organ- 
 ization to meet the requirements of the faithful, or to cope with the 
 aggressiveness of opponents, he felt bound in conscience to lay a 
 plain statement of the case before the Supreme authority. The 
 Bishops of Quebec had admitted their inability to supply priests for 
 the outer missions. This is justification sufficient for his action, 
 were it needed. In a short time all his suggestions somewhat 
 modified were carried out. Even then Rome saw their wisdom, 
 and apparently called him to Rome from London. This appears 
 to be implied in a letter written by him in Rome, December i2th, 
 1815, addressed to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda.* 
 
 Whilst in Rome he wrote, doubtless at the request of Propa- 
 ganda, for it was subsequent to the session in which the congregation 
 first treated of the separation of Nova Scotia from the Diocese of 
 -Quebec, another report on the state of religion in the English colonies 
 of North America. After having named the Maritime Provinces, 
 and given some idea of their civil state, he says: "In these 
 provinces in which there are a large number of Catholics, there are 
 only ten or eleven priests, and not even one Catholic school, so 
 that many live and die without spiritual succour. Amongst the 
 Indians, who are all Catholics, there is not one priest. The Bishop 
 of Quebec has never been able to find in his Seminary enough of 
 priests to fill the places that become vacant in the centre of the 
 Diocese, that is in Lower Canada. Hence he is obliged to leave 
 many missions without priests. The laws forbid the incoming of 
 foreign clergymen, and the Bishop, who does not dare do anything 
 without the consent of the Governor General, as he himself and all 
 the religious communities are at the discretion of the Government, 
 
 Archives of Propaganda. 
 
109 
 
 gives faculties to such priests only who can produce a passport from 
 the Minister of State, a thing that is rarely granted. Hence it 
 happens that English speaking priests as well as foreigners are ex- 
 cluded. In the meantime the societies in London send over a 
 crowd of preachers with a corrupt version of the Bible, and innum- 
 erable pamphlets in which the Catholic faith is distorted, and the 
 Church and the Pope calumniated in the most atrocious and in- 
 decent manner. 
 
 " Against all these evils there is only one remedy, that is, to 
 withdraw the above mentioned provinces from the spiritual juris- 
 diction of Quebec, so as to lay them open to English speaking 
 priests, who according to the laws can now enter, and who could 
 exercise their ministry without the consent of the Government, as 
 they do in England." 
 
 We see from this that religion was languishing because Quebec 
 -could not supply priests from her seminary, and the Bishop, not to 
 give cause of quarrel to the Government, would not receive even 
 English subjects unless they had its approval. 
 
 Well might Father Burke add : " It is, therefore, an absolute 
 necessity for the good of religion, to erect these provinces into 
 Prefectures, immediately subject to the Holy See. But to avoid 
 all outcry and contention * * it would appear opportune to 
 establish them one after the other, installing as Prefects simple 
 priests with the necessary jurisdiction who could build up schools 
 and seminaries as time goes on. There is even now a house in Halifax 
 provided with all the necessaries for a seminary, and for the support 
 of which ample means have been secured. Being the funds of an 
 individual the Government cannot lay hands on them, and they 
 may be held in perpetuity by passing them from hand to hand, as 
 the Jesuits and other communities do in England and Ireland."* 
 
 This letter which delineates with a master hand what is now the 
 Dominion of Canada, lays bare its spiritual needs, and suggests 
 such opportune remedies, is dated at Rome, i2th February, 1816. 
 
 * Archives of Propaganda. 
 
 8 
 
110 
 
 We have deemed the above extracts of sufficient importance to 
 warrant their reproduction. 
 
 Towards the end of April Father Burke left Rome, spent a short 
 time in France, and reached Halifax at the end of July, having been 
 absent a year and a few days. 
 
 The Church has encountered and overcome many enemies ; she 
 has been beset by innumerable dangers which to all human seem- 
 ing meant her utter destruction ; but the promise of Christ never 
 failed, and the hand of the Omnipotent brought her forth not only 
 triumphantly, but with increased numbers from the conflict 
 Napoleon at the height of his power and military strength after 
 having made thrones his footstools, and kings his boding pages,, 
 measured himself against the weak and worn old Pontiff Pius VII. 
 The incarnation of physical strength and brute force was pitted 
 against an aged man who owned no cannon, and commanded no 
 armies. He was, moreover, a prisoner, and deprived of his 
 counsellors. But he represented the spiritual force, he was the in- 
 carnation of conscience and religion. The contest between him 
 and Napoleon was the most complete duel between the natural 
 and the supernatural that the world has ever witnessed. But the 
 world has a short memory ; it forgets that Pius VII vanquished the 
 warrior, and that in 1816 he was reigning in Rome whilst Napoleon 
 was chafing his life away on the rock of St. Helena. But perhaps 
 greater dangers were threatening the Church even then. To show 
 how great they were in the eyes of men we will quote from a letter 
 written to Bishop Plessis by Father Burke, August 2nd, 1816 : 
 " I have just arrived after a long passage without any accident, and 
 with robust health which before was failing. * * Passing 
 through France I saw with my own eyes the fulfillment of the 
 prophecy of Sister of the Nativity, three hundred thousand strange 
 soldiers scattered through the country, and living at their ease at 
 the expense of the French, whose fields are laid waste by the horses 
 of the troops. Never has one seen a people so humiliated ; but are 
 they converted? I dare not be sure, but at least religion is out- 
 wardly re-established by the care of the king who is woiking 
 seriously to that end. Perhaps God never before permitted such 
 
Ill 
 
 an evil beast as Bonaparte to ravage his fields ' a singular beast 
 hath destroyed it.' * * * Religion has suffered much in Italy, 
 though not to the same extent as in France. Nevertheless the 
 Holy Father finds himself grievously embarrassed ; first by the 
 Emperor of Austria, who has come to an understanding with the 
 Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia to form a common 
 religion, and consequently has forbidden his subjects to have re- 
 course to the Court of Rome ; secondly, by the King of France, who 
 dates his reign from the death of Louis XVII, and therefore takes no 
 account of the Concordat made with Bonaparte. Then the King 
 of Portugal has sent an energetic protest against the re-establish- 
 ment of the Jesuits ; and the Irish are dissatisfied with His 
 Holiness (on account of the action of his minister regarding the 
 Veto) and some of them threaten a schism. I had almost for- 
 gotten the Flemish, who com plain bitterly of some arrangements 
 made by the Pope's minister with their new king." 
 
 This is a list of difficulties sufficiently formidable ; yet the 
 brave old Pope who had not bowed to Napoleon, was not to be 
 disconcerted, or turned from his purpose by lesser opponents. As 
 when the frightened disciples awoke the Saviour in the storm- 
 tossed ship lest they should perish, so the Pontiff now invoked the 
 aid of his Divine Master, that the " gates of hell should not prevail" 
 against his Church. Again showing His Almighty power the Lord 
 stretched forth his hand, the tempest subsided : the Pope carried 
 out his designs, and ended peacefully a long and glorious pontificate 
 eight years later, We shall only add here that whilst in Rome 
 Father Burke attended a consistory and " postulated " for the 
 Pallium for the second Archbishop of Baltimore . 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 VICAR APOSTOLIC. 
 
 was not to be expected that the authorities in Rome should 
 take no notice of Father Burke's " Relation '' on the state of 
 religion in these parts. They knew of his zeal and eminent 
 qualities both from the Bishops of Quebec and the Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin. Then they had him in Rome for several months 
 and were enabled to guage his character and capabilities. Propa- 
 ganda had recognized the cogency of his reasons for the subdivision 
 of the immense Diocese of Quebec away back in 1797 and even 
 before 1794, had felt that his remarks regarding Upper Canada 
 called for action on their part. We know how the whole world had 
 been in confusion from that date until the end of 1815. Once 
 peace had come, and order had been restored, the Congregation 
 resumed its work, and one of the first objects of its care was this 
 country of ours. Nova Scotia was practically cut off from Quebec 
 December nth, 1815, although owing to the difficulties of 
 communication it was not until May 1817 that it was technically 
 released. As the Church of Nova Scotia is the oldest in America 
 outside of the Spanish possessions, and as it was the first in what is 
 now Canada to secure autonomy, by being disjoined from Quebec, 
 it is of importance to give an ordered account of the various steps 
 which led up to the happy result. We shall thus have history, and 
 >not highly colored efforts of the imagination, or what we might 
 wish had been. We shall also be able to award praise, or blame, 
 intelligently. Our method of quoting documentary evidence of the 
 most undoubted character will be followed. 
 
 In the transactions of the Congregation of Propaganda for 1817 
 we have under the heading Articolo X Halifax Nella Nuova 
 Scozia the whole history of the affair set out for our perusal, be- 
 ginning at No. 56 to No. 59 inclusive. It says : "In thegeneral Session 
 
113 
 
 of the Sacred Congregation of nth December, 1815, the dismem- 
 berment of Nova Scotia from the too extensive Diocese of Quebec, 
 for the very solid reasons brought forward by the Priest Edmund 
 Burke, Vicar General of Quebec, at Halifax, and the erection of 
 Nova Scotia into a Vicariate Apostolic, and to constitute this same 
 Burke, who has deserved so well of these Missions, a Vicar with 
 title and Episcopal character, was resolved on, provided the Bishop 
 of Quebec should consent thereto. For this purpose a letter was 
 written to that Prelate on i6th April, 1816, notifying him of the 
 resolution taken, and asking him if he were satisfied with this dis- 
 memberment, as he had several times said he was not able to bear 
 the burden of such a vast Diocese, and that it was altogether 
 necessary to effect a division. This letter was consigned to Mr. 
 Burke. 
 
 (C On his arrival in Halifax, Mr. Burke forwarded at once the 
 letter of the Sacred Congregation to the Bishop of Quebec ; and 
 although he imagined that the Bishop would not have consented 
 to the project, he found that that Prelate gave his full adhesion, for 
 he replied to Mr. Burke in these terms : ' I shall willingly sub- 
 scribe to the project of the Sacred Congregation, viz., to erect the 
 peninsula of Nova Scotia into a Vicariate Apostolic, and to propose 
 you for the position. I should have preferred that the Holy See had 
 made it a titular bishopric. * * In any case, and in whatever 
 way the affair is arranged, I find it much to my advantage, that is, to 
 have one Province less on my conscience ; and I am doubly 
 pleased in reflecting that it will be under the jurisdiction of a man- 
 whose capacity and merit I well know. Propaganda will soon re- 
 ceive my full consent to that effect.' Mr. Burke in making this 
 known to the Congregation, forwarded also the original letter of 
 Bishop Plessis, dated at Quebec loth September, 1816, and which 
 is undoubtedly from the Bishop's hand. The letter which that 
 Prelate promises to write to the Sacred Congregation, has not yet 
 arrived, or it has been lost. Nevertheless since his consent is 
 sufficiently apparent from what he has written to Mr. Burke, and 
 from what he had already declared, it appears that the Decree of 
 nth December, 1815, should be put into execution, by constituting 
 
114 
 
 Mr. Burke Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia, with a title and 
 Episcopal character." Paragraphs 58 and 59 speak of the spiritual 
 desolation of Bermuda and the Bahamas, in the former of which 
 Father Burke said it was certain that no priest had ever been ; that 
 Father Burke had agreed to endeavour to find a priest to visit Ber- 
 muda at least once a year, but did not wish to have it incorporated 
 in the Vicariate. Then follows the usual list of questions to be 
 decided in the Session. Number 12 is "Shall Mr. Burke (pp 
 56, 57) be appointed Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia with title and 
 Episcopal character ?" To this the Cardinals reply " affirmatively " 
 and submit their decision to the Holy Father through their secretary. 
 This was in the General Congregation of i9th May, 1817.* 
 
 It can be seen from Bishop Plessis' letter to Father Burke, that 
 his Lordship wished for titular Bishops, that is, Vicars General 
 of his own with Episcopal consecration. This, whilst holding all 
 power centralized at Quebec, would have simply perpetuated under 
 a more irritating form, the ever languishing state of religion out- 
 side of Lower Canada, and effectually frustrated the plan for 
 procuring Missionaries without seeking the consent of Govern- 
 ment. The auxiliary Bishop would have no more power of initi- 
 ative than had Father Jones, or Father Burke, He and the 
 Acadians might time and again petition the Bishop of Quebec for 
 a French speaking priest, only to be told, as Father Jones had 
 been told, that there was no resource for Nova Scotia, save in the zeal 
 of Irish and English priests who might wish to come and serve under 
 him ; and that the Acadians must accustom themselves to English 
 speaking priests. Thanks to the prompt action of Propaganda, 
 grasping as it did the full import of Father Burke's enlightened 
 policy, Nova Scotia was emancipated ; and although both before 
 and after Dr. Burke's death the Bishop of Quebec endeavoured to 
 have the new Vicariate suppressed, it would not make a retrograde 
 movement, 
 
 On July 26th, 1817, the Prefect of Propaganda wrote to Father 
 Burke, notifying him of the action of the Pope in erecting the 
 
 *( Archives of Propaganda/ 
 
115 
 
 Vicariate of Nova Scotia, immediately subject to the Holy See, 
 and appointing him Bishop of Zion, and Vicar Apostolic of Nova 
 Scotia. The letter also says : " I have learned that Prince Edward 
 Island is in nearly the same necessity (as Nova Scotia), so that the 
 Sacred Congregation is thinking of constituting a Vicar Apostolic 
 there also, for which office Rev. ^Eneas McEachan has been 
 mentioned. But as we do not know everything about that priest 
 we beg your Lordship to send us accurate information regarding 
 him, and whether he is really worthy to be placed over that 
 Mission." 
 
 Unfortunately for Prince Edward Island, the policy of Bishop 
 Plessis of having auxiliary Bishops, either in the fear lest he should 
 offend the Government, or from a belief in the efficacy of central- 
 ized power, prevailed for a time. 
 
 When Dr. Burke received the Bulls authorizing his consecration, 
 he deemed it too late in the season to proceed to Quebec. Hence 
 it was only on 5th July, 1818, that he received Episcopal consecra- 
 tion at the hands of Bishop Plessis, in Quebec. From the 
 moment, however, that he had been officially notified of his 
 appointment, he began with his usual energy to make provision 
 for the spiritual needs of his Vicariate. With a view to the found- 
 ing of a Trappist Monastery, as well as to provide for the Acadians 
 and Indians in eastern Nova Scotia, he sent Father Vincent to 
 assume charge of Tracadie, Harbour Boucher and Cheticamp.* 
 The project which Dr. Burke had in view, and which he outlined 
 in a letter to the Bishop of Quebec was to have a Trappist Monas- 
 tery at Tracadie, which should serve as a centre of religious life for 
 the neighboring missions, and around which the Micmacs of Cape 
 Breton and the adjacent localities might congregate at certain 
 periods. Although he did not live to see the full realization of 
 this project, he is nevertheless entitled to a large share of the credit 
 of having been the chief promoter of the first Trappist Monastery 
 established in Canada. 
 
 'See memoirs of this holy Monk, translated and edited by Miss A. M. 
 Pope. 
 
116 
 
 In August, 1817, Rev. Mr. Mignault, who had been three years 
 in Halifax, returned to Quebec, and afterwards went to Chambly, 
 founded a college, and died at the ripe old age of 84, in Montreal, 
 in the year 1868. He was succeeded in Halifax by Rev. Philip 
 Larrisey, who, however, remained only for a brief period in Nova 
 Scotia. 
 
 In 1817 a Rev. Mr. Doucet, of the Diocese of Quebec, who 
 had made a novitiate with the Trappists, arrived in Halifax, and 
 Dr. Burke secured his services for Nova Scotia. For two years 
 or more he laboured in Halifax, and in the autumn of 1819 he 
 was sent to assist the Abbe Sigogne in the Western Counties, where 
 he laboured some years. He died at Tracadie 1825. 
 
 Dr. Burke also sought out young men suitable for the 
 ministry, and in a short time had made a most promising beginning 
 for supplying his Vicariate with well trained missionaries. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HIS EPISCOPAL LABOURS. 
 
 S already stated, Dr. Burke was consecrated on 5th July, 
 He was in the sixty-sixth year of of his age, and had lived 
 a laborious life ever since his advent to Canada, in 1786. 
 At his age, after such a career, the average man would feel desi- 
 rous of laying down the burden borne so long ; but Bishop Burke 
 was considerably more than the average man. Hence he bravely 
 took up the load of the Episcopate, grasped the crozier with a 
 strong hand, and with all his old time energy and devotion to 
 duty, went forth to his new and increased responsibilities. We 
 cannot form a true estimate of a character, nor take the measure 
 of its capabilities, until we see the individual following, without 
 let or hinderance from another, plans of his own initiation. In 
 Western Canada, and in Halifax, Dr. Burke had responsibility 
 without power the most irksome and galling of positions. He 
 could only suggest ; and whilst we -believe his suggestions were 
 excellent, we cannot try them by the touchstone of success, for 
 they were never acted on. Now in his declining years he was able 
 both to initiate, and to carry out. 
 
 His first care was, as we have seen, to ensure a supply of zealous 
 priests for his Vicariate. He wisely resolved to educate a clergy 
 for himself, rather than accept the services of those from other 
 Dioceses who might present themselves for adoption. He says:. 
 u I do not wish for any subjects except those which I shall have 
 formed here myself, or at Quebec." So energetically did he labour, 
 that in September of 1818, he could write: "I have at present 
 four young men studying theology," and he hoped in a few weeks 
 to open his seminary, 
 
 To provide suitable education for the little ones of his flock, 
 was another duty which engaged his fatherly solicitude. The olck 
 
118 
 
 presbytery which had been built in 1785, was removed to another 
 site, and fitted up as a school for girls. The Catholic women of 
 the congregation formed a society to provide funds for the payment 
 of teachers. The boys had class rooms in tbe Glebe House, 
 which also served as a residence for Bishop Burke, his assistant, 
 and a college. Thus was planted the fruitful germ of Catholic 
 education in Halifax. In September, 1820, there were one 
 hundred and ninety-three girls, and about one hundred boys 
 attending these pioneer Catholic educational establishments. And 
 Bishop Burke could write : " The number of boys is daily increas- 
 ing in my school, * * and I shall soon have them all away 
 from the Methodist schools." As already noted, the female 
 teachers were paid through the care of the ladies' society. In the 
 old Glebe House this is how the boys' school was provided for : 
 " I have," writes the Bishop, " two ecclesiastics under Mr. Carroll, 
 who is a priest now ; one of the two is in minor orders. They 
 eat at my table, and I clothe them. This is more than the fees 
 from the school * * Should it happen that my successor 
 should be unknown to me, I shall put the schools almost on an 
 independent footing." 
 
 How successful was his brilliant, but, alas ! too short adminis- 
 tration, is set forth in a letter from Rev. Mr. McEachan, afterwards 
 Bishop of Charlottetown. Writing from Halifax to the Cardinal 
 Prefect of Propaganda, in November, 1819, Father McEachan, 
 who had then passed twenty-nine years as missionary in P. E. 
 Island, says : " Now that the Rt. Rev. Dr. Burke, Vicar Apostolic 
 of Nova Scotia, can act for himself, he is placing and will place 
 these numerous and extensive missions, hitherto neglected, on a 
 respectable footing. He has ordained three priests this year, and 
 has three more almost ready for Holy Orders. He himself teaches 
 in his own house, in which he has also a school for the Catholic 
 boys of this city. He will establish in the course of next summer 
 a seminary at St. Margaret's, as shown on the enclosed map. 
 This will provide not only for the wants of his Lordship, but will 
 also be an advantage to us, on account of its proximity to our 
 island and to Cape Breton. * * Whatever funds the Almighty 
 
119 
 
 may be pleased to put at the disposition of this learned Prelate, 
 will be faithfully employed for their proper uses. Had he been 
 made Vicar Apostolic fifteen years ago, these missions would now 
 be provided with a sufficient number of priests, and I, at my time 
 of life, and in an island one hundred and sixty (?) miles long, and 
 indented by great bays and rivers, would' not be depending on one 
 Canadian priest."* 
 
 This testimony of one who was perfectly cognizant of all the data 
 of ecclesiastical life in the Maritime Provinces, is of much import- 
 ance. It bears witness to the success of Dr. Burke's administration; 
 it confirms the accuracy of his prevision, as to results, and the 
 wisdom of his action, in seeking to have these provinces separated 
 from the Diocese of Quebec ; and it endorses what has been said 
 about the scanty provision made since the conquest, for the spiritual 
 succour of Acadia. 
 
 A word as to the three priests whom Bishop Burke had ordained 
 during 1819. One was Rev. James Grant, an Irish ecclesiastic, 
 who came from Quebec with Dr. Burke, when returning after his 
 consecration. He laboured many years in eastern Nova Scotia. 
 Another was Rev. Thomas Rice, who assisted in Halifax from 
 June, 1819, to October, 1820. Failing in health he visited France 
 to recruit, but went to an early grave in that fair country. The 
 third was the Rev. Denis Geary, who filled up forty-three years of 
 active ministry, dying in Dartmouth in 1862. 
 
 In the spring of 1820, Bishop Burke ordained two priests, the 
 Rev. Mr. Dunphy, known later on as Dean Dunphy, and the Rev. 
 John Carroll, a nephew of his own. Father Carroll remained in 
 Halifax until the end of 1827, served some time on the mission in 
 St. John, N. B., and later on in the Diocese of Toronto. He only 
 died in 1889. 
 
 Bishop Burke being himself a student, although an active mission- 
 ary as well, was desirous that the clergy should be, as a body, learned 
 men. Frequently in his letters this idea holds a foremost place, and is 
 very clearly expressed in one to Archbishop Murray of Dublin.f 
 
 *Archives of Propaganda. f24th May, 1817. 
 
120 
 
 He is giving his reasons for opposing the " Veto," of which he 
 says : " You know I think it a measure ultimately destructive of 
 the Catholic religion, in Ireland, and I believe intended for that 
 purpose." He proceeds to show how it would have that effect, 
 and how by suppressing foreign colleges, and accepting only those 
 who had been educated at Maynooth, the sphere of knowledge 
 would be restricted, and " ignorance and its companion vice would 
 follow," and adds : " I know well it must not be expected that all 
 the clergy should be men of science, but I know it is necessary 
 that some should study and write, and that they should have the 
 means " of so doing. The breadth of view and comprehensiveness 
 of mind which characterized the man, are very manifest in this 
 letter. 
 
 The visitation of the various missions of Nova Scotia was no 
 light task in those days. True a bi-weekly coach had been running 
 between Halifax and Windsor since 181 6, and for six dollars, Isaiah 
 Smith would take you back or forth. But it was a long tiresome 
 journey from Windsor to St. Mary's Bay, a good one hundred and 
 forty miles, and fifty more from Church Point to Eelbrook. Should 
 one prefer to go by water, there was no trim steamer to bear one 
 quickly over the moaning waves ; not even a regular packet in 
 which some slight accommodation might be found. No ; one must 
 depend on some chance fishing smack, in which, for days perhaps,, 
 one must endure all the concentrated nausea of bilge water, stuffy 
 atmosphere, and fishy odors. The journey to Pictou, Antigonish, 
 and Tracadie was not so long, still it bristled with inconveniences 
 of various kinds. 
 
 In the summer of 1819, Bishop Burke visited Church Point and 
 Eelbrook, and the adjacent hamlets. There is still living a vener- 
 able old Acadian, Mr Louis Bourque, (the French form of Burke) 
 who served the Bishop's mass on that occasion. He is now in 
 his ninety-second year, and I have before me some letters written 
 by him quite recently, which in penmanship and literary style are 
 superior to High School graduating essays. This worthy patriarch 
 of St. Mary's Bay can describe every incident of the Episcopal visit. 
 He well remembers how, after a hard day's work, the Bishop 
 
121 
 
 stood with the Abbe Sigogne outside the door of the small 
 presbytery, pointing out and explaining the various constellations 
 glowing in the firmament, as he had been accustomed to do, thirty 
 years previously, to his class of embryo astronomers in the Semin- 
 ary, at Quebec. 
 
 The following summer he made a visitation of eastern Nova 
 Scotia, administering the Sacrament of Confirmation at Antigor.ish, 
 St. Andrew's, Tracadie, Arisaig, etc., encouraging pastors and 
 people, giving salutary admonitions and wise counsel. On his 
 return to Halifax in September, 1820, having seen for himself the 
 :State of religion in his Vicariate, he issued a pastoral letter to the 
 priests and people under his charge. 
 
 This letter was written in Latin, and the pastor was to translate 
 into the vernacular English Gaelic, or French, as the case might 
 be and read to his flock those paragraphs which were addressed 
 to the people. The admonitions and directions for the clergy 
 were for themselves alone, They had regard to the enforcement 
 of the disciplinary laws of the Church, with some regulations 
 adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the country. It would 
 appear that, then as now, men indulged unduly in strong drinks. 
 In reading what Bishop Burke says on this point, we must bear 
 in mind the more primitive state of life in remote districts, the 
 long distances that funeral processions had to march, and the very 
 few opportunities of social intercourse. " He heard with astonish- 
 ment, in some missions, that large quantities of rum were 
 consumed at funerals, and quarrels sometimes took place in the 
 graveyard." He strictly prohibits any priest to give Catholic burial 
 to a corpse, if intoxicating liquor be brought to the cemetery. 
 Paragraph third throws a strong light on some social habits of the 
 time, and seems worthy of quotation. It says : " We have heard 
 also that at marriage feasts a great multitude of men and women 
 assemble, eating and drinking during the whole night and day, 
 perhaps for several days, so that the marriage of a daughter is at 
 times the ruin of her parents as well as of her husband. From this, 
 too, arise drunkness, quarrelling, fighting and other scandals, un- 
 ^vorthy of the Christian name. That they may no longer be heard 
 
122 
 
 we strictly command, in virtue of obedience, that none be admitted 
 to a marriage feast except the parents of the spouses, and their 
 relatives and friends, to the number of twenty-five only." 
 
 k Frolics " also were to be regulated by having men alone, or 
 women only, according as the work to be performed was peculiar 
 to men, or women. He recognized, he says, that owing to the 
 circumstances of life in this new country, the friendly aid mutually 
 given at these frolics might be beneficial ; the above regulation 
 aimed at retaining the benefit whilst eliminating the occasion of 
 evil. This pastoral was not printed, but written copies were sent 
 to the clergy. It is dated 25th September, 1820.* 
 
 Bishop Burke was anxious to have a Coadjutor in order to ensure 
 the permanency of his work, and the carrying out of his plans. He 
 may have suspected, although it does not appear from his letters, 
 that which took place, viz., that an attempt would be made to 
 suppress the new Vicariate, and bring it again under the jurisdiction 
 of Quebec. In any case he knew it would be a serious drawback 
 to have his place vacant for any length of time, or to have it filled 
 by a stranger. He rightly concluded that some personal knowledge 
 of the distinctive features of a diocese is essential to its successful 
 administration. It would be his labour of love to see that his suc- 
 cessor should have this qualification. He first thought of applying 
 to Archbishop Murray for his former secretary, but, as he very 
 candidly tells that prelate, " doubting very much whether a Dublin 
 parish priest would^accept such a situation, and yet more so whether 
 he could provide for such a mission, in which the bulk of Catholics 
 are French and Scotch, who don't speak a word of English, I have 
 turned my thoughts to Canada. There is in that Diocese a priest 
 born in this town, but bred in Canada, who however speaks Eng- 
 lish well," &c.f 
 
 From a letter to the Bishop of Quebec, of December 22nd, 
 1818, we learn who this priest was. We read: "Enclosed your 
 Lordship will find an application to the Prefect of Propaganda, 
 
 *The copy before me was sent to the Abbe Sigogne ; we are indebted to Mr. 
 Placide P. Gaudet for it. 
 fArch. Hal. 
 
123 
 
 praying him to give me Rev. Mr. Maguire for a Coadjutor, and I 
 beg your Lordship to endorse it and have it forwarded as soon as- 
 possible. You know the man, and you know he is the one I 
 require ; he would keep up always a friendly intercourse with your 
 Diocese." In a subsequent letter referring to this subject, he 
 writes : " This province is rapidly developing, and by reason of its 
 natural advantages, it cannot fail to be, within a few years, a most 
 flourishing country. Consequently we must make an effort for the 
 support and extension of religion." 
 
 Bishop Burke with his knowledge of the intentions and views of 
 the Government, and with his master hand on the pulse of the 
 Province, knew the significance of the activity that was vibrating 
 throughout, and which had been steadily increasing since the 
 general peace of 1816. Nova Scotia was awakening to life ; her 
 children were beginning to realize the richness of their goodly 
 inheritance, and the Bishop foresaw and rejoiced in the dawn of a 
 prosperous era. Rev. Mr. McGuire was not inclined, as it would 
 seem to accept the proffered position. 
 
 Old St. Peter's church built on a modest scale in 1784, supplied 
 with a tower and belfry in 1794, and very considerably enlarged in 
 1810, was now too small for the congregation, and not in keeping 
 wth the position of the Catholic religion in Halifax. The faith 
 had come to stay ; it had outlived the storms of early persecution, 
 and the sinister attempts of later enemies. The orderly conduct 
 and exemplary piety of the people, the learning and zeal of Dr. 
 Burke, had broken down prejudice, confuted noisy firebrands, and 
 won respect and recognition from the best elements of Halifax 
 Society. Hence we find that on the occasion of a dinner to Lord 
 Dalhousie, given by the St. Andrew's Society in 1818, Bishop 
 Burke was an honoured guest. The Church is the great progres- 
 sive element in our civilization, not, be it borne in mind, in trading 
 and money making, which with many are synonymous with progress, 
 but in true education, in works of beneficence, in uplifting the 
 masses, and in promoting the higher and finer arts and sciences. 
 It is a curious fact that, whilst the relative stage of civilization of 
 ancient tribes or peoples, is : udged, and rightly so, by such 
 
124 
 
 remains as we have of their literature and artistic handiwork, this 
 test is not applied to the middle ages. We have now, not merely frag- 
 ments and shreds of the work of those ages, but magnificent churches 
 in every country of Europe, paintings and frescoes and wonder- 
 ful mosaics, innumerable productions of the sculptor's chisel, 
 and a literature exceedingly rich in poetry, philosophy and theo- 
 logy. Apply to those ages the usual test of relative civilization and 
 it will be readily seen how grandly they tower above all preceding 
 ones. 
 
 The Catholics of Halifax, led and encouraged by a Prelate as 
 enlightened as Dr. Burke, could not be false to the traditions of 
 the Church in the matter of architecture. A cathedral was 
 required, and Dr. Burke found time, amidst his many occupations, 
 to commence the work. Soon after his consecration he began to 
 collect money for this purpose, and in the spring of 1820, building 
 operations commenced. In the last of his long series of letters to 
 the Archbishops of Dublin, extending over thirty two years, he 
 writes, under date of June 2oth, 1820 : " We have just begun to 
 build a Cathedral here which will cost us at the least ten thousand 
 pounds sterling. The extreme length of the church is one hundred 
 and six feet, the breadth sixty-six ; the wall, lime and stone ; cut 
 stone in the whole front. " When we consider that there were 
 only about two thousand Catholics in Halifax, and that not 
 until nearly forty years later did any other denomination build 
 a church in brick or stone, we can infer how far Bishop Burke 
 -was ahead of his time. Haliburton in his history, 1829, speaking 
 of the churches of Halifax, says : " There is nothing remarkable 
 in the appearance of any of these buildings, except the Catholic 
 Chapel (sic) which is an elegant and spacious structure, built of cut 
 .free stone." The Church begun in 1820, was finished a few years 
 later; it was enlarged and modernized under Archbishop Connolly, 
 the freestone front was replaced by a noble facade and imposing 
 spire, all of cut granite, and constitutes St. Mary's Cathedral, a 
 church edifice unsurpassed by few on this continent. 
 
 The friends of Dalhousie College may be interested in what 
 Bishop Burke wrote to the Bishop of Quebec, regarding Lord 
 
St. Mary's Cathedral, Halifax, 
 
125 
 
 Dalhousie, when that nobleman was about to visit Quebec in 1819, 
 "He is the best man I know, a man gentle, humane, without pride 
 or austerity. Your Lordship will not fail to give him a good recep- 
 tion, and his wife also, who resembles him much. He has his 
 chaplain with him, a good fellow, as are also his aids. I recom- 
 mend them to you." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE MAN AND His WRITINGS. 
 
 N all the notices we have seen of Bishop Burke, ten years are 
 invariably added to his age. This general mistake, no 
 doubt, can be traced to one source, viz., the obituary notice 
 which appeared in the Halifax " Recorder," on the morning 
 of his funeral, In that, as we shall see, his years are given 
 as seventy-eight. This age was subsequently inscribed on 
 his tombstone, and hence, the origin of all future errors. 
 Bishop Burke did not know the day, nor the month, of 
 his birth, but he knew the year. We shall let him explain, 
 for it will give us some insight of life, such as it was, for the 
 Catholics of Ireland in 1753. Writing 26th March, 1810, to 
 the Bishop of Quebec, he says : " You ask my age, and the time of 
 my ordination. Regarding the first, I tell you frankly that I do 
 not know either the day, or the month of my birth, and what is 
 more, I never knew it ; neither do I know when, or where, or by 
 whom I was baptized, for I had the happiness to be born in those 
 dark days, when the Catholics of my country, not only baptized 
 their children in secret, but hid them also from the search of min- 
 isters, armed with a double-bladed sword, that is, with most atrocious 
 penal laws, such as you would seek for in vain elsewhere, and with 
 fury to destroy every vestige of the Catholic religion. Hence 
 Catholics regarded them as emissaries of the devil, and believed 
 that if they put their hand on a child, that alone would bring down 
 a malediction, and the good people were not far astray. I was 
 thirty-three years of age the year of my anival in Quebec, in 1786 ; 
 and I was ordained priest at the beginning of my twenty-third year, 
 in virtue of an Apostolic indult granted to our people." He adds 
 that the Rev. Mr. Grace, whose answer he encloses, was born about 
 
127 
 
 the same time, and apparently knows no more than himself about 
 dates. 
 
 Bishop Burke was born, therefore, in 1753, and was, as we have 
 said, in his sixty-sixth year at the time of his consecration. He was 
 a tall man, with a bright eye, and grave, intellectual face. Murdoch, 
 the historian, who doubtless saw him, says he was a "handsome" 
 man, and stooped slightly in his last years. His courage and fear- 
 lessness in the performance of his duty, both in the wilds of 
 Michigan and Ohio, as well as in the refined circle of Halifax, have 
 been unconsciously portrayed by himself in his letters. Withal he 
 was of gentle manner, and most considerate of others. His perfect 
 unselfishness in money matters is apparent from his eager wish to 
 make over all he possessed, when in Western Canada, to a religious 
 order, as well as from his action in Halifax. Bishop Plessis gives 
 a glowing tribute of praise to his generous hospitality, and his 
 letters show that he was continually assisting and protecting the 
 friendless, and those whose wants exposed them to temptations . 
 We shall not follow the bad example of those who ruthlessly exploit 
 the letters of the dead, even the loving letters of a parent to a little 
 child, or those of a Bishop, or friend scarcely cold in his grave. 
 Hence the veil which covers his private charities must remain 
 undrawn. He would wish it so. 
 
 It can be readily inferred that he did not spend much time in 
 social pastimes, yet he was a genial companion in private life. He 
 waged some hotly contested controversial battles, but avoided 
 personal abuse, and never cherished feelings of animosity. For 
 years he had written against the Rev. Mr. McCullough, a Presby- 
 terian minister residing at Pictou. Neither had ever met the other. 
 One day Bishop Burke noticing a stranger on the street, enquired 
 his name. He was informed that it was Mr. McCullough, his 
 opponent. Dr. Burke went up to his old time foe, introduced 
 himself, invited him to his house where they passed an hour or two 
 in friendly conversation. Each probably found that the other was 
 not so black as he had imagined. 
 
 Dr. Burke's natural wit, though kept well in check, served occa- 
 sionally as a ready answer to carping opposition, or noisy declama- 
 
128 
 
 tion. The ground -of the old cemetery was damp and slightly 
 boggy. One member of the congregation, who concluded he had 
 a mission to right all wrongs, was very persistent in advocating a 
 drain, and at every meeting of the parishioners, discanted on the 
 necessity of having the ground thoroughly dry. On one occasion 
 being more prosy than usual on his favorite theme, Dr. Burke 
 quietly remarked, " Oh, my dear sir, do not be over anxious for a 
 dry resting place ; perhaps water is the very thing you will be wish- 
 ing for in the next world." Needless to say the question was 
 postponed for future consideration. 
 
 In passing judgment on the literary works of Bishop Burke, we 
 must bear in mind that they are the productions of a man in charge 
 of a large mission, the many active duties of which he faithfully 
 discharged. They are not the carefully wrought out essays of 
 learned leisure ; rather they are the spontaneous outpourings of a 
 well stored mind in its odd moments of relaxation from the worries 
 and cares of a heavy charge. Dr. Burke, like all practical and busy 
 men, paid no attention to what the dudes of literature call "finish." 
 He rightly believed that the true mission of the spoken, or written 
 word, is to convey one's ideas clearly, and in correct language, and 
 with as little loss of time as possible. The real actors in the 
 business of life are not those who wear glossy clothes, and fault- 
 lessly fitting gloves; nor are the so-called masters of style, the ones 
 who exercise an energizing influence in the intellectual arena. The 
 writer who spends hours in polishing each page affects a class of 
 readers, not unlike in mental idiosyncrasies, to the social one which 
 is impressed by him who devotes much time to brushing his blonde 
 locks, or smoothing the nap on his beaver. 
 
 What we do find in Dr. Burke's writings are clearness of exposi- 
 tion, logical arrangement of arguments, and a thorough grasp of the 
 question under treatment. The amount of erudition displayed is 
 prodigious. Latin and Greek and Hebrew were as familiar to him 
 as French or English. Nor was his readings confined to Ecclesi- 
 astical authors ; he is ready, where required, with a citation from a 
 pagan classic, or a non-Catholic historian or essayist. A man so 
 thoroughly equipped for battle, with so many arrows in his 
 
129 
 
 theological quiver, might be safely counted on to give a creditable 
 account of himself in any controversial fray in which he should 
 engage. He did not write for money ; financially his books were 
 a losing speculation. He wrote to correct false impressions re- 
 garding Catholic belief, to confute slanders, and to instruct and to 
 arm for defence the members of his flock. Every one read his 
 vigorous onslaughts, and his triumphant defence of some dogma of 
 the Church. He placed religion on a solid and intelligible basis, 
 and compelled respect for its adherents. 
 
 His volume on "The First Principles of Christianity" is a clear and 
 ably developed treatise both from reason and Scripture, on Reveal- 
 ed Religion. As a sample of pure reasoning on a subject often 
 discussed in our own day, viz, eternal punishment, we may cite 
 the following : "Some pretend that to inflict an endless punishment 
 for an instantaneous transgression, is inconsistent with justice, with 
 goodness, with mercy, or even with power. These men seem to 
 imagine that the punishment of a crime should be of the same dura- 
 tion with the transgression, a rule observed in no Court of 
 Equity. The punishment is proportioned to the malice of the 
 crime, not to its duration, and the malice of an offence is propor- 
 tioned to the dignity of the person offended ; an offence of the Divin- 
 ity is of unbounded malice, and deserves endless punishment ; it 
 is therefore perfectly consistent with justice. In all countries, for 
 any enormous crime against society, a man is for ever retrenched 
 from that society whether by death or perpetual banishment an 
 offence against charity, the bond of union among the blessed, is a 
 capital offence against that society, and of course deserves a perpetual 
 exclusion. 
 
 "Add to this that not only the act but the desire, and the attach- 
 ment to any forbidden object, is criminal, and consequently deserv- 
 ing of punishment. The man who perseveres until death in pursuit 
 of any created object, however flattering to his vanity, his ambition 
 or his sensuality, has made his election ; he has not only preferred 
 that object to the possession of consummate happiness in the 
 contemplation of his God, in opposition to the dictates of reason, 
 but obstinately persevered in that disposition to the end, and since 
 
130 
 
 death immutably fixes his affection, it must be perpetual, and the 
 correspondent punishment of equal duration. Hence to inflict 
 endless punishment is a necessary effect of justice. It is also 
 perfectly consistent with sovereign goodness : to countenance or 
 encourage evil, is not an effect of goodness, it would rather argue 
 a defect ; infinite goodness is infinitely opposite to evil, 
 infinitely remote from evil, and of course infinitely inimical to 
 evil. Whilst this opposition continues, sovereign goodness will 
 exclude and discountenance evil ; and since by death the sinner's 
 will is immutably fixed on evil, this opposition must be perpetual." 
 
 Then he shows the absurdity of making a comparison between God 
 and a king or parents, and concludes : "In a word, if the man who 
 perseveres in sin to the end, ceases to sin, it is because he ceases 
 to live. His desire of sin is perpetual and the punishment also. " 
 
 Compared with this logical reasoning, how weak are the argu- 
 ments sought to be deduced from the attributes of God against 
 eternal punishment. 
 
 Dr. Burke had nothing of the Gallican spirit in his theological 
 writings ; he was a firm believer in, and upholder of the Pope's 
 prerogative as supreme head on earth, of the universal Church. 
 It is strange that anyone who has read his works should think dif- 
 ferently. In his book on " The Ministry of the Church " * he 
 most lucidly demonstrates that the Pope is the fountain source of 
 Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and defends the action of Pius VII, in 
 suppressing the Sees in France. 
 
 On the question of Papal infallibility, whilst admitting it was not 
 a dogma of faith (for it had not then been defined) he brings forward, 
 nevertheless, a lengthy array of arguments from Scripture and the 
 writings of the Fathers in favour of it. Treating of our Lord's words 
 to Peter, (Luke XXII.) " Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired 
 to have you, &c.," he says : 
 
 " He prayed immediately for the perpetual stability of Peter's 
 faith, because on it, as on the rock, is founded the faith of Christians 
 till the end of time, and mediately for that of his fellow Apostles. 
 
 * Dublin, 1817. 
 
131 
 
 Christ knowing the infallible efficacy of his prayer, and in it finding 
 a certain remedy against the instability of human nature, he 
 expressly prescribed that remedy, saying to Peter, " Confirm thy 
 brethren." This must be understood of Peter as chief pastor of 
 the Church, to whose pastoral care even his fellow Apostles were 
 committed. The confirmation of his brethren, being a pastoral duty, 
 must of all necessity descend to his successors. Satan's views of 
 perverting souls were not confined to the Apostles or the Apostol- 
 ical times ; nor was the remedy provided by Christ, against the 
 artifices of that insidious enemy, more necessary in the Apostles' 
 days than in ours. So true it is that Peter's faith must at all times 
 be the rule of ours. In this sense his successors have always 
 understood it." 
 
 He next takes up the words cf our Saviour charging St. Peter to 
 feed His lambs and His sheep, (John XXL), and after having 
 quoted some of the Father's reasons in the following manner : 
 
 " Peter's commission to feed Christ's flock gives additional 
 weight to the authority of these writers. It is an axiom in law, that 
 when the Supreme power in any state, vests an authority, it com- 
 municates, at the same time, all the powers necessary to the 
 exercise of that authority, otherwise the commission would be 
 illusory. Hence it is inconceivable that Jesus Christ, possessed of 
 unlimited power and unerring prescience, should vest an authority 
 in the chief pastor of his Church, without communicating, at the 
 same time, all the powers indispensably requisite to the proper 
 exercise of that authority ; of these powers that of teaching sound 
 doctrine is manifestly the first, (Jer. III.), "I will give you pastors 
 according to my heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and 
 doctrine." We know from the book of Nehemiah VIII. , 8, that 
 the Hebrew term Sechel, imports the sense of the doctrine 
 taught : it is there said, that the Levites read " distinctly in the 
 book of the law of God, and gave the sense of it," Sem Sechel. It 
 is, therefore, the first duty of the pastor to teach the doctrines of 
 Christianity, and clearly and distinctly explain the genuine sense, 
 in which they are to be understood; hence, Peter Chrysologus, that 
 pious and learned Bishop of Ravenna, in his letter to Eutyches 
 
132 
 
 says, "we exhort you, honourable brother, obediently to attend to 
 these things, which have been written by the most blessed Pope of 
 the Roman city, because the blessed Peter, who lives and presides 
 in his own See, gives the truth of faith to those who seek it. " As 
 for us, continues that Prelate, " the affection which we have for 
 peace and the faith, does not permit us to judge causes of faith 
 without the consent of the Bishop of Rome." He, at least thought 
 the Roman Pontiff's decision, in matters of faith irresistible." 
 
 Much more of the same tenor might be cited, but the fore- 
 going is amply sufficient to vindicate, were that necessary, the 
 perfect orthodoxy of his scholarly dissertations. He continued to 
 write after his consecration, and when death came he had almost 
 completed a Treatise on the Sacraments. 
 
 Power and vigour of reasoning, vast and varied erudition, 
 honesty of purpose, and fluency of expression, are the characteristics 
 of his writings. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PASSING AWAY, 
 
 is appointed unto all men once to 'die," declares the- 
 Apostle, and weak human nature, taught by every day 
 events, and warned by its own consciousness of decay,, 
 pathetically takes up the refrain, and sounds it down the centuries. 
 A stern reality is this death, whether borne on angel wings to kiss 
 into unconsciousness a lovely child, or whirled in a chariot of fire 
 to smite a vigorous youth, or carried slowly forward in the wallet of 
 time to gently garner the ripened fruit of a long and well spent life. 
 A dispeller of illusions, too, is this relentless pursuer of the human 
 family. In the dim light of his presence all artistic groupings of 
 deeds, all dramatic action, all fictitious presentments of our own 
 importance, are ruthlessly shorn of the glamour that ennobled them 
 in our eyes ; and we see them only as well or ill-done duties, and 
 perhaps wasted opportunities. The setting sun throws out a 
 shadow startling in its lengthened outlines ; and the decline of 
 life's fitful day carries the soul back over its span of years,, 
 shadowed too often with phantoms of forgotten misdeeds, of giant- 
 like proportions. The mind is no longer held captive in a net- 
 work of complex subtleties, such as bias our judgment, or produce 
 indecision during our life : it sees only the yea, yea, or the nay, 
 nay the systole and diastole of conscience. Death, the pursuer,, 
 at length overtakes the pursued, and, fight bravely as he may, the 
 latter is to all human seeming invariably conquered. Yet is there a 
 triumphant ring in the dying cry of the vanquished. " Non 
 omnis Moriar" not all of me shall die, is the challenge the 
 expiring Christian throws down to victorious death, as he calmly 
 passes to a life and a state more real, though less material, than/ 
 the present. 
 
134 
 
 Dr. Burke had seen death under various forms, and he felt that 
 his own race was nearly run. After his return from Eastern Nova 
 Scotia in September, 1820, he issued, as we have seen, a pastoral 
 letter, replete with salutary instructions, both for priests and people. 
 He arranged his temporal affairs, too, and executed his last will 
 and testament on 2oth September. In those days there was no 
 Episcopal Corporation to hold in trust the Church property of the 
 Diocese. Hence Dr. Burke bequeathed all his property, real and 
 personal, both in Nova Scotia and Ontario, to the Rt. Reverend 
 Bishop Plessis of Quebec, Rev. John Carroll, and Michael Tobin 
 Esq., of Halifax, constituting Lawrence Doyle and Patrick Ryan 
 executors of his will. The subscribing witnesses were Rev. 
 Thomas Rice, John Loughan, and Michael McSweeney. His 
 " general intention " was " to provide for the boys' and girls' 
 schools," as we learn from his last letter to Bishop Plessis. 
 
 Having thus set his house in order, he was like " the strong man 
 well armed " who guards his dwelling, and keeps all things in 
 peace. He could calmly await the summons which should end 
 his personal activity on earth. The effects, however, of his 
 labours would not end : they were seed-germs of noblest deeds ; 
 fecundated by divine grace, and would pullulate and blossom, and 
 fructify in an ever- increasing ratio for the glory of God and the 
 good of souls. As well attempt to destroy the attractive force of 
 matter, as to deprive of enduring consequences a human action. 
 For weal or woe, these consequences will be propagated in an end- 
 less series down the ages, unless, or until, a stronger impulse 
 modify or change the source of their reproductiveness. 
 
 Bishop Burke was not unprepared for his last malady ; he had 
 felt, for some time, its approach. With the fading of the autumn 
 flowers, and the falling of the seared leaves, his erst robust frame 
 grew weak, as if his work, like that of the dying season, had been 
 done. Lying on his deathbed there were no ghosts of misspent 
 years to haunt his sleeping hours, or to affright his waking thoughts. 
 His short, but brilliant Episcopate, rounded, in a fitting manner, the 
 long years of his missionary life. Scarcely two years and four 
 months had passed since his Episcopal consecration, and only a 
 
135 
 
 little more than three years since he had control over the Vicariate, 
 and yet how much had been done. Five priests ordained for his 
 Diocese, two aspirants nearly ready for Holy Orders ; several 
 students in college ; a school for boys and another for girls, 
 founded, and progressing most favourably ; a college inaugurated, in 
 a modest way, it is true, yet with a guarantee of success should his 
 views be carried out; every portion of his large and difficult Diocese 
 visited and blessed by his Episcopal ministrations, and cheered and 
 instructed by his words ; finally a cathedral of enduring stone, 
 spacious -for the time, and of imposing outline, well under way. 
 When we consider the time with its lack of conveniences, the sparse- 
 ness of the Catholic population, and their comparative poverty, we 
 can appreciate more fully the vigour and success of Dr. Burke's 
 administration. We can unite with Rev. Mr. McEachan, after- 
 wards Bishop of Charlottetown, in regretting that his promotion 
 had not come fifteen years sooner. In his Vicariate, which com- 
 prised only the peninsula of Nova Scotia, he now had as assistants 
 in the work of the ministry, the following clergymen : Rev. Abbd 
 Sigogne, St. Mary's Bay ; Rev. A. Doucet, Eelbrookj Rev. Father 
 Grace, Prospect; Rev. Messrs. Thos. Rice, John Carroll and James 
 Dunphy, Halifax ; Rev. Denis Geary, Chezzetcook : Rev. Colin 
 Grant, Antigonish ; Rev. James Grant, Manchester Guysborough 
 Co., and Rev. Father Vincent, a Trappist Father, at Tracadie. At 
 this time there were in Cape Breton, Rev. Father Gaulin, afterwards 
 Bishop of Kingston, Ont, at Arichat, and Rev. Alexander Mc- 
 Donell at or near Judique. 
 
 The attentive reader of these Memoirs can imagine, thanks to 
 the many letters quoted, the varied panorama over which Bishop 
 Burke could look back. For thirty-four years he had lived and 
 laboured in Canada, had loved the country, and felt assured of its 
 future prosperity. His peaceful life at the Seminary of Quebec, 
 his close contact with savage, and half-breed, and debased white 
 men, during two eventful years in the wilds of Ohio and Michigan, 
 his five years of ceaseless journeying and priestly labours in 
 Ontario, and his nineteen years at Halifax, the centre of refinement, 
 as well as of England's power on this continent, during the stirring 
 
136 
 
 period of Napoleon's wars, not to speak of the little brush with the 
 United States, formed an experience such as few are given to con- 
 template. Through it all he had " fought the good fight," loyal to 
 his faith, zealous for the good of souls, and filled with that charity 
 which seeks not its own, but the things that are of God. He had the 
 friendship and esteem of the leading men of his time, but no word 
 or act of his savouring of flattery, or sycophancy, can be adduced. 
 In a difficult time for Catholics he knew how to obey all just laws 
 of the state, and to despise and set at nought all that attempted to 
 interfere with his religion, or to fetter his sacred ministry. He had 
 a keen sense of man's nothingness in comparison with God, his 
 Creator. Hence, when death drew near, he requested his attendants 
 to lift him from his bed to the floor.* Lying in this suppliant posture 
 he calmly resigned his beautiful soul to God, on Wednesday, 2 9th 
 November, 1820. For three days his mortal remains lay in state, 
 and were viewed by many thousands. Death not only levels the 
 inequalities of rank, but it breaks down, too, all walls of division. In 
 rightly constituted minds all antagonism dies with the antagonist ; 
 and where only faults were seen, or perhaps looked for, now only 
 the virtues and good qualities of the departed flash on the mental 
 view. Around the bier of the sturdy champion of the Church and 
 her rights, only expressions of sorrow and admiration were heard. 
 Men realized that they had lived with one of those strong person- 
 alities which sum up and embody all that is best of their age, and 
 from whose action, future generations date an epoch. The Catholic 
 congregation mourned a father who had lovingly watched over 
 their interests, a pastor who had fed them with the word of truth, 
 and the bread of life, and a leader who had built on broad and 
 deep foundations the spiritual edifice of their faith and charity. 
 
 The sentiments of the non-Catholic community can be gathered 
 from the following obituary, printed in the Acadian " Recorder," on 
 Saturday. December 2nd, 1820. As already pointed out the age 
 
 venerable lady whose mother was present, gave me this interesting, 
 information . 
 
137 
 
 of Bishop Burke at the time of his death was not seventy-eight, but 
 sixty-eight. Moreover, the British Government had not the slight- 
 est act or part in his promotion. We deem it well to emphasize 
 this. 
 
OBITUARY. 
 DIED : 
 
 " On Wednesday last, universally regretted, as he lived respected,, 
 the Rt. Rev. Dr, Edmund Burke, in the 78th year of his age. He 
 was a native of the Co. Kildare (Ireland), and parish priest of the 
 town of Kildare ; which he vacated at the frequent and urgent 
 solicitations of some of the professors of the Seminary of Quebec, 
 and arrived in Lower Canada 2nd of August (1780).* There he 
 officiated as a clergyman, and taught the higher branches of mathe- 
 matics and philosophy with great credit to himself and benefit to 
 the numerous students, who crowded to hear the lectures of a 
 man celebrated in the University of Paris, as excelling most men 
 of his day in mathematical science, and also the classics, particu- 
 larly in the Greek and Hebrew languages, till Lord Dorchester 
 appointed him, as a faithful and capable person, to reconcile the 
 many powerful tribes of Indians, inhabiting the country around 
 Lake Superior, and the back parts of the Ohio and the Louisiana, 
 who at that time manifested dispositions very hostile to the British 
 Government.! 
 
 Among the savage tribes of Indians he resided six or seven 
 years, suffering every privation that civilized man could endure, 
 till he fully accomplished the object of his mission. He instructed 
 the heathen Indian in the principles of the Christian religion, and 
 impressed on his mind a knowledge of the true living God by 
 whose assistance he inculcated into his savage mind sentiments of 
 loyalty, obedience and lasting friendship for his great worldly 
 father, King George the Third. Government rewarded these 
 important services by granting Dr. Burke a pension for life. 
 
 '1786 is the correct date. 
 
 fBishop Hubert appointed him on Lord Dorchester's request. 
 
139 
 
 His vanity would have been excited, if he had any, by the sin- 
 cere and cordial friendship of the late much lamented Duke of 
 Kent ; as also of every military and naval officer who successively 
 commanded in British America for the last thirty years; very many 
 of whom, it may be said, all entertained so good an opinion of 
 his sound judgment and zealous loyalty, as to consult him on the 
 most important points of their intended operations, before they 
 put them into execution. His advice and opinions during the 
 late American war were gratefully acknowledged by the two great 
 men who then commanded, and by them honourably reported to 
 His Majesty's ministers, who in approbation of Dr. Burke's loyalty 
 and learning, used their influence with the See of Rome to appoint 
 and ordain him Bishop of Zion and Vicar Apostolic in Nova 
 Scotia.* 
 
 It would appear superfluous to enlarge on the merits of this 
 truly good and pious man, in this province, where his charity, dis- 
 interestedness, learning and loyalty are so generally known and 
 acknowledged by all classes of the community, for the last twenty 
 years that he has resided here as Vicar General of the Diocese of 
 Quebec. But some men, ignorant of his true character, may 
 attach bigotry and intolerance to it, from his polemical writings 
 and publications ! This would be a false picture, as he never 
 wrote or published a controversial argument in his life with any 
 other view than justification of himself and the tenets of his reli- 
 gion, every one of which he firmly believed and supported against 
 learned and able assailants. Not one of these learned gentlemen 
 will accuse him of bigotry, intolerance, want of charity and benevo- 
 lence to all mankind, as there was not a son or daughter of Adam, 
 no matter of what religious creed, or if any, that he would not. 
 cheerfully take by the hand, and, if possible, conduct them to 
 heaven. 
 
 The numerous poor of Halifax, as also the unfortunate inhabi- 
 tants of the gaol, will have ample cause to lament his death, as he 
 always relieved their distress, even to the last shilling nay, more ;. 
 
 "Inaccurate, as we have seen. 
 
140 
 
 lie would borrow money to do it. The writer can assert without 
 fear of contradiction, that no man, let his creed, country or colour 
 be what it may, ever departed from his door without receiving the 
 boon of charity. Reader, let us imitate the good qualities and 
 practise the benevolent actions of this worthy prelate, now no 
 more. By so doing we will be true and loyal subjects to our king 
 and constitution, charitable to our fellow creatures, moral in our 
 conduct, respectful and obedient to the constituted authorities of 
 the province, pious and honest in our sentiments and dealings ; 
 which will secure us respect and peace of mind here, and eternal 
 happiness hereafter. 
 
 The mortal remains of this good man will, agreeably to his own 
 injunctions, be entombed in a private manner, this morning, 
 between the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock." 
 
 With the loving sorrow of his spiritual children to adorn, and the 
 grateful prayers and blessings of the poor and unfortunate to hallow 
 his lowly grave, quietly and unostentatiously as he had lived, he 
 was laid to rest in God's acre, adjoining old St. Peter's Church. 
 Nova Scotia, the first portion of Canada cut off from Quebec, was 
 early widowed, and the fair promises of her first days of Ecclesias- 
 tical autonomy were, by various adverse circumstances, delayed of 
 fruition. After the opening of the present Cemetery of Holy Cross, 
 Dr. Walsh, first Archbishop of Halifax, caused the remains of his 
 illustrious predecessor to be exhumed, and had them reinterred in 
 the new cemetery. In the Halifax " Sun " of May 6th, 1846, we 
 read : 
 
 " The remains of the Venerable Bishop Burke, were disinterred 
 on Thursday last, from the grave where they had rested for so many 
 years, in the old Catholic burial ground, and transferred to the 
 little chapel in the new cemetery, where they remained till yester- 
 day, when they were again committed to the earth with due solemn- 
 ity, thousands of persons having visited the chapel in the interim, 
 to get a glimpse of the leaden coffin which contained the sacred 
 dust, and to offer up their prayers therein. An immense concourse 
 of persons were present at the reinterment, and the scene witnessed 
 was highly imposing. We understand it is in contemplation event- 
 
141 
 
 ually to erect a suitable monument over the grave of the honoured 
 dead." 
 
 The " Cross," a Catholic paper, had the following in its issue of 
 May pth, 1846: 
 
 " On Sunday evening matins and lauds for the dead were recited, 
 and on Monday morning the Rev. Mr. Nugent offered up the Holy 
 Sacrifice in the Cemetery Church. After Mass Dr. Walsh perform- 
 ed the absolution over the coffin. On Tuesday morning, the day 
 appointed for the funeral, an incessant stream of human beings was 
 pouring from every direction towards the new cemetery. The 
 Church was soon filled, the three doors in front were thrown open, 
 and an immense multitude who could not obtain admittance offered 
 up their prayers outside. At 9 o'clock, the office of the dead was 
 commenced by the Bishop and Clergy, after which High Mass was- 
 sung by the Rev. Mr. Nugent, attended by Rev. Messrs. Tracy and 
 Hennesy, as Deacon and Sub-deacon. After Mass and the absolu- 
 tion, a funeral procession was formed, and advanced through the 
 cemetery, the Bishop and Clergy chanting the usual Psalms. Having 
 arrived at the grave, the coffin was lowered, the last solenm rites 
 were performed by Dr. Walsh, and the clergy preceded by the 
 Cross, returned to the church reciting the De profundis* Thus after 
 the lapse of a quarter of a century was renewed honour given to the 
 hallowed remains of an illustrious Irishman, an erudite and virtuous 
 Bishop, a devotad and affectionate pastor." 
 
 A modest slab with a suitable inscription marks the spot where 
 he rests after his well filled day. 
 
 Had Dr. Burke obtained a Coadjutor, the development of the 
 Church in Halifax would not have been retarded. Unfortun- 
 ately the Bishop of Quebec tried to induce Rome to take a 
 retrograde step, a thing which she never does, although she 
 frequently suspends action. It is difficult to understand why a 
 man of the ability, and with the experience of Monsigneur Plessis 
 should have desired the suppression of the Vicariate of Nova Scotia. 
 True, it was independent of Quebec as a Vicariate, whilst incorpo- 
 rated with New Brunswick under an auxilliary Bishop, it would 
 revert to its former state of dependence, and, we must suppose, to 
 10 
 
142 
 
 its former state of somnolence. As already seen Quebec did not 
 supply Missionaries even to the Acadians, but frankly told Father Jones 
 that they must become accustomed to English speaking clergymen. 
 Moreover, the zeal of the Irish and Scotch, in all their poverty and 
 persecution, was the only resource the authorities of Quebec could 
 suggest for obtaining priests, for Nova Scotia. Perhaps, indeed, 
 Bishop Plessis may have felt that he was now in a position to 
 furnish missionaries, and he may have desired to atone in some 
 measure, for the very meagre aid extended to Acadia from the 
 time of the expulsion. Thanks, however, to the considerateness 
 of Father Jones, for the Acadians, and to the spirit of justice of 
 Dr Burke, these faithful remnants of a valiant race had been happily 
 provided with priests speaking their own language. The stranger 
 had done for them what their own had admitted they could not do. 
 The Acadians are a grateful people, and are not likely to forget, or 
 undervalue the services of their benefactors. 
 
 Whilst we cannot assign motives for the action of Bishop 
 Plessis, we have the fact that he endeavoured to effect the sup- 
 pression of the new Vicariate, and delayed for a time the appoint- 
 ment of a successor to Bishop Burke. In the Archives of 
 Propaganda for the year 1820, we find the following, which we 
 translate from the Italian : " Monsignor Plessis, Archbishop of 
 Quebec, in a Pro Memoria of iyth November, 1819, proposed to 
 the Sacred Congregation the incorporation of the Vicariate Apos- 
 tolic of Nova Scotia to that of New Brunswick. In a recent 
 letter of 8th January of this year, in making known the vacancy of 
 the Vicariate of Nova Scotia, by the death of Monsignor Edmund 
 Burke, he renewed the memorial and revived his instances for the 
 execution of his above mentioned project. 
 
 " The erection of the Vicariate of Nova Scotia is of very recent 
 date, for it has had only one Vicar Apostolic, in the person of the 
 already named Prelate. Such a hasty suppression of a Vicariate 
 which contains nine thousand Catholics, and counts various pious 
 establishments, amongst them the Seminary of St. Margaret,* 
 
 'No doubt the College in Halifax is intended. 
 
143 
 
 should not be undertaken so lightly. The Cardinal Prefect in his 
 letter of i4th April last, past, did not fail to bring to the notice of the 
 Archbishop of Quebec the difficulties to be incurred by such a 
 step. He thought it advisable, however, to invite the Archbishop 
 to lay before the Sacred Congregation the reasons which could 
 justify such an action, and make known its utility. Pending this 
 request, the Cardinal Prefect deems it prudent to defer the nomi- 
 nation of a new Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia, and await the 
 reasons which the Archbishop of Quebec may produce, and thus 
 proceed in the affair with full knowledge of the cause." 
 
 This unfortunate interference of the Bishop of Quebec prolonged 
 the vacancy in the Vicariate of Nova Scotia to the span of years 
 embraced by the Egyptian famine. Luckily, or rather providen- 
 tially, as in this case, so in that one, there had been a Joseph to 
 foresee, and provide for a dreary future of seven unfruitful years. 
 The energetic and wise action of Bishop Burke, during his short 
 reign, had insured the people against actual spiritual starvation ; 
 but vigorous and healthy development was stayed. Rome 
 proceeds cautiously age has taught her that it is frequently a more 
 happy solution to allow lapsing time to untie the gordian knot, 
 than to cut it with the ready sword. But she never makes a back- 
 ward step ; she may pause and examine well the ground ; when, 
 however, a movement is again made, it will be a forward one. 
 Hence on 24th June, 1827, Rt. Rev. William Fraser was conse- 
 crated Bishop, and became the second Vicar Apostolic of Nova 
 Scotia. 
 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Partial list of Misssonaries who laboured in Acadia from 1604 to 
 the Expulsion, 1755. They were in the country at the 
 dates mentioned ; in many cases for years before, and for 
 years after. 
 
 1604 Rev. Nicholas Aubry and another priest came over with De Monts 
 expedition : the latter died at Port Royal . The former baptized 
 the first white child born in what is now Canada. 
 
 1610 Rev. Jesse Fleche, Under him the first missionary work on the conti- 
 nent, north of Florida, began. Poutrincourt granted deeds of land 
 at Port Royal this year. 
 
 1611 Rev. Fathers Biard and Masse, Jesuits. 
 
 1613 Rev. Jacques Quetin, S.J, 
 
 1619 Two Recollet Fathers. 
 
 1629 Fathers Vieulpont and Vimot, S.J. 
 
 1631 Colonists and priests of a religious order settled at Cap Sable. 
 
 1634 Rev. Julian Perrault, S.J. He wrote the " Relations" for 1635. 
 1636 Rev. Andrew Richard, and Rev. George D'Endemare, S.J. 
 
 1640 Pere Ignace and other Capuchins had a college. 
 
 1645 Pere Rousand and other Recollets. 
 
 1648 Rev. Cosmas de Mante had been for some years Superior of the Recol- 
 lets in Acadia. 
 
 1652 Rev. Martin de Lyonne, S. J., who died a martyr of charity at Cheada- 
 bucto. 
 
 1654 Pere Leonard de Chartres. 
 
 1659 Rev, Jacques Fremin, S.J. 
 
 1660 Two Jesuit Fathers in Acadia, according to Bishop Laval's report to 
 Rome. 
 
 1671 Rev. Laurent Molin, Recollet. 
 
 1676 Rev. Louis Petit. On 3Oth October, 1678, he was constituted parish 
 priest of Port Royal, the second parish established in Canada. 
 In 1690 was taken prisoner to Boston, but was back again 1692. 
 
 1676 Mission formed at Beaubassin and attended by a Recollet Father, 
 Claude Moireau, I think, until 1685. 
 
 1683 Rev. Louis Peter Thury for a short time. He returned again 1686. 
 
 1684 Two Fathers of the Order of Penitentiaries. 
 
 1686 Rev. Claude Trouve. 
 
146 
 
 1692 Rev, Messrs, St. Cosmas and Baudoin. 
 
 1693 Revs. Alexander "Doucet and Peter Volant de Saint Claude. 
 
 1696 Rev. M. de Mandoux Cure, Port Royal. 
 
 1698 Rev. Anthony Gaulin . He laboured chiefly among the Indians. His 
 
 name is signed to the Register of Port Royal. 1731-32. 
 170* Revs. Justinian Durand and Felix Pain, Recollets, who laboured for 
 
 many years. 
 
 1708 Pere Patrice Rense. 
 1711 Rev. Felix Cappes, Recollet, Pere Masson . At this time Sam Vetch 
 
 writes : " A great many missionaries are amongst them " (the^Aca- 
 dians). Only one, he says, had been caught and sent to Boston. 
 I7 J 6 Messrs. Dominic de la Marche and Gratien Raoul. At this time five 
 
 missionaries were supported by the French Government 
 I7 2 4 Pere Isidore at Windsor, Pere Sanquiest, Sup. of Recollets at Louis- 
 
 bourg. Pere Breslay at Port Royal. 
 I7 2 5 Rev. Fathers Ignace, Pierre, Jocunde and Charlemagne, in Acadia and 
 
 Cape Breton, 
 
 1729 Rev. Jean Baptiste Brault, V. Gen., in Acadia. 
 !730 Rev. Alexander de Noinville du Glefien. 
 '732 Messrs. Lesclaches, Monfils, Goudalie and Claude de Saint Poncy de la 
 
 Vernede. 
 
 1736 Rev. M. Chauvreulx. 
 1737 Abbe de St. Vincent and La Loutre. 
 1739 Rev. M. Vauquelin. 
 1740 Rev. M. de Manach for many years. 
 1741 Abbe Maillard, who died at Halifax 1762. 
 1742 Rev. M. Desenclaves; 
 1746 Rev. M. Girard. 
 1754 Rev. M. Daudin, 
 1755 The year of the expulsion there were in English Acadia Messrs. Desen- 
 
 claves, De la Goudalie, De Chauvreulx, Daudin and Lemaire. In 
 
 French Acadia, Messrs. La Loutre, De Manach, Visien, and Le 
 
 Guerne. On the St. John River, M. Coquart and several Jesuit 
 
 priests. 
 1758 When Louisbourg was taken there were several Recollet Fathers, and 
 
 the Abbe Maillard in Cape Breton, On P. E. Island there were 
 
 Revs. M. M. Girard, Cassiette, Biscarat and Dosque. 
 After the expulsion and the capture of Louisbourg, only two priests 
 
 were left, viz. ; Desenclaves, who hid with some of his flock in the 
 
 woods of Argyle, and the Abbe Maillard, who came to Halifax. 
 
147 
 
 Complete List of Priests who laboured in the " Mission of Nova 
 Scotia,'' which included Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, P. E. 
 Island and the eastern part of New Brunswick, from the 
 expulsion, 1755, to the death of Bishop Burke, 1820. 
 With the exception of the two first, the year opposite their 
 names is that of their arrival. 
 1755 Abbe Maillard and Desenclaves. 
 1768 Rev. M. Bailly. 
 1772 Rev. M. McDonald, P. E. Island. 
 1773 Pere De La Brosse, S.J. 
 1775 Rev. Joseph Mathurin Bourg. As a boy of ten years he was one of the 
 
 expelled Acadians. 
 1785 Rev. Father Jones. 
 
 1786 Rev. M. Leroux and Rev. Wm. Phelan. 
 1787 Rev. M. Power. 
 1789 Rev. Mr. Grace. 
 
 1790 Revs. Laurence Whelan and Aeneas McEachan. 
 1791 Rev. James McDonald. 
 1792 Rev. M. M. Lejamtel and Allain. 
 1799 Abbe Sigogne, De Calonne, Pichard, or sometimes written Pilchart, 
 
 Rev. Edmund Burke (not Bishop Burke), and Rev. M. Champion. 
 1801 Rev. Edmund Burke, afterwards Bishop. 
 1802 Revs. Alexander McDonell and James Austin McDonald. 
 1803 Rev. M, Ciquard He had previously laboured along the St. John 
 
 River, and at Madawaska. 
 1810 Rev. M. Dufresne. 
 1811 Rev. Alexander McDonnell. 
 1812 Rev. M.M. Beaubien and Brodeur. The former was the first priest 
 
 sent by Quebec to P. E. Island in fifty-seven years. 
 1814 Rev. M. Mignault. 
 1815 Rev. M, Gaulin and Pere Vincent, who eventually founded the Trap- 
 
 pist Monastery at Tracadie, N. S., and M. Manseau. 
 1816 Rev. Paul McQuade at St. John. 
 1817 Revs. Ph. Larrissey, Le P'rancois (for six months), Andre Doucet and 
 
 Wm. Chisholm. 
 
 1818 Revs. Colin Grant, Jos. E. Cecile and Antoine Gagnon. 
 1819 Revs. Thomas Rice, Denis Geary, and James Grant, ordained by 
 
 Bishop Burke, Rev. M. M. Molland and Madran. 
 1820 Revs. James Dunphy and John Carroll, ordained by Bishop Burke. 
 
 A Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald was in Halifax for six months in the early 
 
 years of the century ; but was only waiting for a passage to St, 
 
 John's, Newfoundland. 
 
148 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 (Translation of a letter written from Port Royal, 1618, by Biencourt, son of 
 Poutrincourt, who now signs himself Poutrincourt, as successor of his deceased 
 father.) 
 ** To the Authorities of the City of Paris. 
 
 " PORT ROYAL, NEW FRANCE, 
 
 " ist September, 1618. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, 
 
 "As it is so ordered that human society is sustained by mutual aid, I 
 have thought it would be a pleasing service were I to give you an account of 
 an affair which is of great importance to the interests of your city, which, as is 
 well known, is supported for a good part of the year out of the abundance of 
 this country. My late father, Monsieur de Poutrincourt, and myself, have, 
 during the last fourteen years, done our best to be useful to France in this respect, 
 and to plant here the French name and together with it the name of God.* 
 
 " Years ago all these people (the Indians) were disposed to receive Holy 
 Baptism, when the sad death of my late sire and father, killed in a cowardly 
 manner in the service of the king at the siege of Meri-sur-Seine, three years 
 ago, gave a check to the work begun. But whilst this is most regrettable, we 
 have also to regret that little by little the French name will disappear in these 
 parts unless prompt measures be taken ; and for your supply of codfish (the 
 great manna of your city and of Europe which this country naturally affords) 
 you will be made dependent on the will of the English, who treat us in a 
 hostile manner here, and who have driven away the Jesuits, having taken them 
 captive with their luggage, burnt our houses, and this very summer captured a 
 ship from Dieppe. In the meantime they are forming strong colonies in 
 Virginia and Bermuda, whither they send some colonists every year, and lately 
 a fleet from England, with five hundred men and a number of women, passed 
 this way, and took in a supply of wood and water in my neighbourhood. 
 There is a special Council (or department) for Virginia, and schools in London 
 for the instruction of the natives, and they (the natives) promise the English 
 that when they shall have all the country over there, they can easily have this 
 part here.* 
 
 * There had been no break, therefore, in the history of the colony, and 
 France had been yearly receiving great supplies of fish from its shores. 
 
 * The knowledge here displayed by Biencourt of the acts and intentions of 
 the English, is something marvellous, in one living for the past fourteen years 
 in New France, and must win for him the admiration of all generous spirits. It 
 proves also the continuous intercourse between Port Royal and other parts. 
 
149 
 
 <c This is not a matter to be despised ; you are the fathers of the people and 
 you must not allow the bread to be snatched from their hands. The designs 
 of the English must be frustrated, now that we perceive them, and we should 
 endeavour to have this country peopled by the French and fortified by two or 
 three forts along the coast for their security, and to protect the right of fishing 
 here, which is worth a million in gold every year to France. A small outlay 
 will suffice for this, gentlemen ; there will be need of two or three ships going 
 to and fro which will carry gratuitously those who may wish to come hither, 
 and a small sum for the sustenance of the poorer for a time, as it will be necessary 
 to'make this first outlay, by means of which you can send hither the healthy poor, 
 andjrelieve many families burthened with numerous offspring, and place in easy 
 circumstances many who now suffer in silence and who are ashamed to make known 
 their wants ; for if barbarous tribes can live here, why shall not those live to 
 whom God has given a knowledge of so many industries and ^ho will have 
 France near to supply them with the necessaries for those industries and for 
 life. 
 
 " The land here, gentlemen, is good for cultivation ; game and wild animals 
 abound, and fish are very plentiful, and I would not exchange this land for 
 Peru if it were only properly settled. 
 
 "Make, then, gentlemen, this small outlay, and have the glory of having 
 planted here the name of God and of being the first to colonize this country, 
 and make use of us as much as you can. We have explored all these coasts 
 at the risk of our lives ; they are all known to us, and we understand and 
 speak the language of the natives, 
 
 " Will you permit for such trifles the French name to be dishonoured in all 
 this land ? You who have a ship on your shield (referring to the arms of the 
 the city of Paris) as a reminder of the naval victories of your ancestors, will 
 you tarnish that glory and refuse to aid and encourage commerce with New 
 France, which will repay one day the outlay with abundant usury, for besides 
 the great manna of the fisheries its woods and meadows will be filled bye and 
 bye, and will supply you with abundance of leather, fat, meat, and butter and 
 cheese lor the benefit of your people ; moreover, the woods here will supply 
 you with ships, charcoal, and building material which you now import from 
 Sweden and Denmark, by a longer and more dangerous voyage than that 
 from this place . 
 
 " I would have many more things to say on this point, gentlemen, which I 
 omit, not wishing to weary you, and shall only say that if this country has 
 been hitherto despised, it was through ignorance and by the malice of traders. 
 
 " People say, it is a long time since we heard talk of Canada, and we have not 
 yet profited by it. I answer, we have been left a long time unassisted, and 
 it is easy to criticise in the midst of idleness or seated at ease in your chair. 
 
150 
 
 " I shall only call again your attention to the English, leaving you to reflect 
 on their designs, and I pray God, gentlemen, to give you an increase of ali 
 prosperity. 
 
 " Your very humble servant, 
 
 " POUTRINCOURT." 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Extract from a letter of Bishop Saint Vallier, in which he gives* an- 
 account to a friend, of his first visit to New France, when only 
 Vicar General.* 
 
 As I was obliged to visit as much as possible, all the French settlements of 
 Acadia, to learn for myself the state of this new colony, I called at Richibuc- 
 tou, Shediac (Chediak), Isle Saint Jean (P. E. I.), which struck me as being 
 most beautiful. Cape Louis, Little Canso, Fronsac and Chedaboucton, where 
 I wished to remain a little time to inspect the fishing station, established there 
 about two years previously by a French company, which receiving aid and 
 succour from the king, will be able, in the future, to repay with interest the 
 advances made, provided that there be sent thither every year some inhabi- 
 tants, especially fishermen ; and that they be provided with boots and nets, 
 and allowing them after a time to fish on their own account, they will be 
 able, with a little assistance, after a few years, to begin the clearing of the 
 land. The commandant of the fort is Monsieur de la Boullaye, lieutenant of 
 the King for the province, an honourable man and deeply interested in the 
 success of the company ; there are fifty Frenchmen engaged in the fishing 
 industry, whom two Fathers, of the order of Penitentiaries, of the Province of 
 Normandy, carefully instruct in their religion. These good religious men say 
 Mass every day, and diligently fulfil their pastoral duties. 
 
 A company of soldiers, some of whom should be fishermen, and others 
 labourers and artisans, would, in my opinion, do wonders in that place. 
 
 In going from there to Beau Bassin, we had to suffer considerably, especially 
 the last three days during a portage of the prairie, on which the heat of the 
 season exposed us to the irritating bites of the mosquitoes ; it appeared to me 
 that this experience was necessary to enable us to sympathize with the poor 
 people, who, during that season, are exposed to the relentless persecution of 
 those little pests whilst working in the woods or fields. 
 
 Mand. Queb., Vol. I. 
 
151 
 
 The situation of Beau Bassin is charming ; it is watered by several fairly large 
 rivers, which, after having formed five islands, fall into a cove about five or 
 six leagues in circumference, which forms one of the most beautiful natural 
 harbours of the world. The entrance of this harbour, although only half a 
 league wide, nevertheless is not dangerous, and it serves as a connection with 
 the Baie Francaise (Bay of Fundy), which is said to have a coast-line of at 
 least two hundred leagues. There are one hundred and fifty souls in this 
 settlement, without counting three families of Christian Indians who are living 
 there and growing Indian corn. About ten years ago the- first Frenchmen 
 came to this place from Port Royal : in the beginning they were obliged to live 
 chiefly on herbs : afterwards they had great difficulty in growing wheat, 
 because the fertile land was'inundated by the tide, and to prevent this it was 
 necessary to build dikes, at great labour and expense. At present they are in 
 more easy circumstances, R and as there is an abundance of pasturage in the 
 vicinity, they have let loose a number of cows and other animals which they 
 brought from Sable Island, where the late Commandant de Rasilly, having 
 formerly left them, they had become almost wild, and could only be approached 
 with difficulty ; but they are becoming tame little by little, and are of great 
 advantage to each family, who can easily have a good number of them. At 
 present they grow a little grain and work at the fishing, both that of salmon 
 in the bay, as well as codfish, which are only sixty leagues distant. If a 
 vessel from France could bring them every year cloths and other little com- 
 modities, it would find a return cargo of wood, boards and dried salmon. 
 The English, to whom they applied in their want, gave them but little help, 
 and necessity drove them to make for themselves some coarse linen and other 
 cloths : but they cannot manufacture sufficient for all their wants. 
 
 Their spiritual wants had been attended to up to that time by a Recollet 
 Father, but he having been called to Quebec to become the Superior of their 
 House, I gave them, as they desired it, a priest, who should be their pastor. 
 They deserve to be looked after ; they are very good people, who fear God, lire 
 in peace, and who would be altogether irreproachable if they had been more 
 reserved in their traffic of liquor with the Indians. They listened to my 
 advice on this point with much docility, and they nearly all performed their 
 devotions with a great appearance of piety. Their Chapel is small ; the roof 
 is thatched ; the walls of the building cannot last long, so it is necessary to 
 think about constructing another, as well as a house for the priest ; a cemetery 
 should be procured near by, for the one now in use is too distant ; moreover 
 it is necessary to cross a river to reach it. God will provide, if it be pleasing 
 to Him, for all these wants. 
 
 From thence I passed on to the Mines ; this settlement was so called on. 
 account of the proximity of a ridge, where according to all appearances, tflere- 
 is a mine of copper, which was pointed out to us as we passed along. The 
 
152 
 
 inhabitants are young men, well built, and hard working, who left Port Royal 
 like those of Beau Bassin, whose example they followed in draining their 
 marshes. I spent a day there to satisfy their devotion ; I was engaged in the 
 morning in giving instructions and hearing confessions, and in giving them 
 Communion at my mass ; and in the afternoon in baptising some children and 
 in settling some differences which had arisen between them, 
 
 They urged me, when leaving, to give them a priest, and they promised me 
 not only to support him, but also to build a church and a parochial house on 
 an island belonging to one of them, who offered it to me for that purpose, in 
 whole or in part, according as might be required. 
 
 In our journey to Port Royal, after nine days of a disagreeable passage, 
 during which we scarcely slept, and thought we should be lost, our provisions 
 ran short, on the feast of St. James (July 25th), and we, not being inclined to 
 .go back ten leagues, were obliged to disembark and take the road through 
 the woods which led to the Fort. Monsieur de Villebon, commander of the 
 place in the absence of the Governor, received me with military honours, and 
 .showed me all possible attention. My principal pleasure was to see on the 
 feast of St. Anne the fervour with which the greater part received the sacra- 
 ments. They listened very attentively to the word of God, and they appeared 
 to me sincerely disposed, notwithstanding it was against their interest, to lessen 
 their traffic in liquor with the Indians if it should be judged necessary, even 
 -conjuring me to obtain new regulations on this point and to help to execute 
 those which the king had already promulgated in all the colony, so as not to 
 retard the conversion of so many Indians, who it would appear would be- 
 come perfect Christians were it not for this one obstacle. 
 
 The Church is fairly pretty and reasonably well provided with all requisites. 
 I have placed there a second ecclesiastic to assist the pastor who could not 
 attend to all, and who having heard of my arrival in Quebec, gave me by antici- 
 pation a statement of everything in a letter, dated 22nd October, 1685, in the 
 following words : 
 
 "This settlement, he says, is composed of about eighty families, amounting to 
 at least six hundred souls, a people naturally gentle and inclined to piety ; 
 neither swearing nor debauchery nor drunkness is known amongst them. Al- 
 though they are scattered along the river for a distance of four or five leagues, 
 they come in crowds to the church on Sundays and holidays and frequently 
 receive the Sacraments. God forbid that I should attribute their piety to my 
 feeble care, I found them such on my arrival ; and nevertheless they had been 
 without priests for fifteen or sixteen years under the domination of the English ; 
 I must render this glory to God, and this justice to them. I have with me a 
 man gifted with virtue and talent for the instruction of youth : living with me 
 he teaches with good results, a school for boys in my house ; I myself teach 
 the catechism to the girls in the church. This man is the only one to whom 
 
153 
 
 I can open my heart about holy things, not having in the neighborhood any- 
 other spiritual succour during the nine years that I have been without a com- 
 panion, without counsel in the midst of a thousand difficulties which may readi- 
 ly come to a person, who like me, has passed the greater part of his life in a 
 state so different from that in which I now am,* and who am warned by my bodily 
 infirmities to prepare myself for death. This I confess is my greatest cross not 
 having anything except satisfaction in regard to my dear parishioners who have 
 too much kindness and consideration for me Your predecessor, my Lord, 
 sent Monsieur Thury here to console me, he has retraced his steps to give an 
 account of his apostolic mission ; he can give you in one interview a better 
 account of our state than I could by the longest of letters ; be pleased then to 
 grant him an audience quickly, and send him back to us without delay with 
 another priest if possible who could go not only to visit several poor families, who 
 have settled about sixteen leagues from here, where they are almost abandoned, 
 neither Father Claude nor myself being able to visit them ; but who would go 
 thirty or iorty leagues distant to Cape Sable, to the St John River and other 
 circumjacent places along this coast where there are no missionaries. Monsieur 
 de Saint Castin asks for a priest for Pentagoet where he usually resides with 
 the Indians who are desirous of being instructed . This gentlemen has need 
 himself of spiritual aid to keep him in the right path. He came to this country 
 at the age of fifteen years as an ensign of Monsieur de Chamblay ; and having 
 been obliged at the taking of Pentagoet to seek safety in the woods with the 
 Indians, he has been constrained to accomodate himself to their manner of 
 life. He is natnrally of a good disposition, and deserves to be helped; we 
 here are under many obligations to him ; as he is in good circumstances and is 
 generous, he frequently gives large alms to our Church, which without his assist- 
 ance, and the legacy of another private individual, would be much poorer than 
 it is ; I never enter it without remembering him, and when he comes to see me, 
 which is usually twice a year, he is delighted to assist at our Sunday service 
 which is carried out with all the decorum which is possible for us to observe . 
 On these days we always^sing a High Mass, at which I give a simple instruction 
 according to my poor ability and adapted to the capacity of my audience. At two 
 o'clock we sing Vespers, which is followed by Benediction of the most Holy 
 Sacrament and a lesson in catechism to the girls. When I came here I knew 
 very little of plain chant, we had not even the books of the choir ; but as they 
 sent us some books from Paris this year, and as I practised frequently with 
 some of the young men, we are able to sing a little, the Psalmody will improve 
 litte by little. To supply the place of clerics we have ten or a dozen young 
 boys who assist us in the singing and in the ceremonies like choirists, in red cas- 
 socks and surplices ; and it seems to me if we had another priest all would go 
 
 He had been an officer in the army. 
 
154 
 
 well. I know, my Lord, that this would entail an increased expenditure, and 
 that the Seminary of Quebec, which, up to the present has spent a great deal, 
 might not be in a position to add this to the other expenses ; but when you 
 return to France perhaps you will find at the Court or elsewhere some special 
 fund to forward so good a work ; it is enough for me to make known in all humi- 
 lity my views, and then leave the rest to your zeal." 
 
 It was thus that this virtuous ecclesiastic wrote me from which you can 
 judge how great is his consolation at present. I had sent him the Rev. Mr. 
 Thury, whom he requested for the Mission de la Croix, and I brought with 
 me, as I have already said, another priest to assist him at Port Royal. The 
 service will be better performed and the ceremonies will be proportionally 
 the same as in Quebec ; during the winter they will more easily be able to 
 baptize the children in houses distant from the Church, where now laymen too 
 readily baptize them, and they will be able to attend more easily to the in- 
 struction of the young, who up to the present have been well cared for. I 
 saw with pleasure that a good sister, whom I had sent hither from Quebec, 
 had already done much good for the women and girls ; her house will be 
 henceforth a centre for the one and the other ; she will teach some to read, to 
 write, and to work ; she will be able to take boarders, and may find amongst 
 their number those who would be able to succeed herself, and she perhaps 
 may even make of it a nursery for school mistresses to supply the whole coun- 
 try. Would to God that I may have the happiness to see this as soon as possi- 
 ble, and to be able to have side by side with it a small community of ecclesi- 
 astics who might supply pastors and missionaries for the places around about, 
 and to be able to send them in search of the Indians, even in the colonies 
 subject to England. 
 
 This was the wish that I formed before leaving Port Royal to retrace my 
 way to Beau Bassin. Here all the people received the sacraments again, when 
 I finished certain affairs which I had left incomplete. I called again at Mi- 
 ramichi ; instead of taking again the route by Restigouche and Matan for 
 Quebec, I took the one by Isle Percee, where I knew my presence would not 
 be useless. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 SENtONILL 
 
 MAY 3 1 1995 
 
 U. C. BERKELEY 
 
 LD 21-100m-9,'48XB399sl6)476 
 
44626' 
 
 M223067 
 
 13*470,? 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY