THE 
 
 
 
 OF 
 
 iiNICUS 
 
 EXTRACTS TF*0S2 THE PAMPHLET 
 
 ENTITLED 
 
 **A REPORT OF 1 HE C^tT-TTEE OF ST. MARY 1 
 
 PARISH, HALIFAX, N S ,” 
 
 AND 
 
 A REVIEW of the same. 
 
 Touch not till Lord's anointed.” —Ps.ilm civ. 
 
THE 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 HIBERIICU8, 
 
 EXTRACTS PROM THE PAMPHLET 
 
 ENTITLED 
 
 "A REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF ST. MART’S, 
 
 HALIFAX, N. S.." 
 
 AND 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE SAME* 
 
 " Touch not the Lord’s anointed .”— Psalm civ. 
 
 PICTOU, N. 8. 
 
 1842 . 
 
. 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 \U. , - 
 
 
 
 % \ gKl * . i * 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 On the news of the conduct of the Irish Catholic Schis- 
 maticks of the Capital of Nova Scotia reaching the writer of 
 the following Letters, he caused Meetings to be held in the 
 County of Pictou, at which the following Resolutions were 
 passed—and subsequently adopted in Colchester and Cumber¬ 
 land—which plainly shew that if the Irish Schismaticks of 
 Halifax are averse to Doctor Fraser because a Scotchman, 
 they can find no Irishmen, or very few, in this part of the 
 country to -share in their unhallowed antipathies against the 
 best of men, or to be partakers with them in their low, vulgar, 
 and detestable antinational prejudices. 
 
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT MEETINGS HELD 
 IN THE COUNTY OF PICTOU. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Irish Catholics at the Mine**, New 
 Glasgow, held at Mrs. Chisholm’s Hotel on the 23d Decem¬ 
 ber, 1841, for the purpose of taking into consideration the 
 best means to shew their disapprobation of the conduct of 
 certain persons in the Capital of Nova Scotia, calling them¬ 
 selves Roman Catholics, who have most unfeelingly maligned 
 and defamed their venerable and beloved Bishop’s character, 
 and to dissever every tie and union with them, as well as u ith 
 the Gibraltar Junta Catholics, either as Catholics or Irishmen, 
 the following Resolutions were moved and adopted— 
 
 1. Resolved, That we admit and recognize no other Eccle¬ 
 siastical Superior, possessing episcopal power in this Diocese, 
 save and except the Right Reverend Doctor Fraser, and we 
 are certain that a moie humane—a mote charitable, or better 
 Bishop cannot be found in the entire world. 
 
 2. That we consider those who have rebelled against Bi¬ 
 shop Fraser’s authority no longer Catholics, and that we 
 wish to hold no further correspondence with them, either as 
 Irishmen or Catholics, as we consider them a disgrace both 
 to their religion and their country. 
 
 3. Thai we care not what be the country of the Bishop’s 
 birth, whether England, Ireland, or Scotland, provided he be 
 a good man —such as Bishop Fraser is; and defy his enemies 
 to prove him to be anything else. 
 
 4. That we never knew kinder men or better Priests at 
 home or abroad than the Scotch Priests are, and that we w ill 
 allow^no man or body fc of men^to insult or malign them with 
 impunity. 
 
 5. That we wish our minds to be made known to the Bishop, 
 Vicar Generalfand the^Priests and People of Nova Scotia on 
 this bead, through the medium of the public prints* 
 
V. 
 
 6. That the most Rev. Doctor Murray be solicited to lend 
 his aid in putting down the confusion occasioned here by endea¬ 
 vouring to excite national prejudices which, if indulged in 
 here, may prove of creat damage to ourselves ami families, 
 and eventually end in the shedding of human blood ; and that 
 lie will call the fomenter of it to order himself, or have it 
 effected in the proper quarter. 
 
 7. That while we heartily despisp and condemn the conduct 
 of the Gibraltar Junta Catholics this year, we equally detest 
 and reprobate the line of conduct pursued to our own liishop 
 here by a large port ion of tlie Catholics of the Metropolis, who 
 would, if they dared, treat him in a similar manner. 
 
 8. That the Bishop or Scotch Priests will not hold us 
 accountable for their conduct, or as taking any act or part 
 therein. 
 
 9. That we will, of our humble means, share the last far¬ 
 thing to see justice done to our Bishop, by sending Delegates to 
 Rome or whatsoever means seem best calculated to effect the 
 good purpose. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Irish and Scotch Catholics, held at 
 Merigomishe on the evening of Tuesday, the 23th December, 
 the foregoing Resolutions were adopted, and the following 
 moved, seconded and passed unanimously :— 
 
 ]. Resolved, That the motives which justify the Irish to 
 reject a Bishop because a Scotchman will justify the Scotch 
 to reject a Bishop if an Irishman. 
 
 2. That on the death of the present worthy Bishop, whom 
 mav God long preserve, an Englishman, through the mediation 
 of Queen Victoria with the Pope may be appointed to the 
 vacant See, whom the Irish, on the test of experience, will 
 obey, ami to whom Scotchmen will submit, as being appointed 
 by the head of the Church. 
 
 3. That we, the Catholics of Merigomish, return our most 
 sincere thanks to the Catholics at the Mines for the prompt 
 and energetic manner in which they have come forward and 
 done their duty on the present occasion. 
 
 4. That we all here, Scotchmen and Irishmen, will hold the 
 bonds of charity unsevered no matter what they do in the 
 capita). 
 
At a Meeting of the Irish Roman Catholics of the Town 
 of Pictou, held on the evening of the 30th December, in the 
 Roman Catholic Chapel at Pictou, for the purpose of expres¬ 
 sing their dissatisfaction at the conduct of a number of indivi¬ 
 duals of their persuasion, in the City of Halifax, relative to 
 the character and jurisdiction of our present venerable and 
 much esteemed Bishop, the Resolutions of the Meetings held 
 at the Mines, New Glasgow, and at Merigomish were unani¬ 
 mously adopted, as also the following: — 
 
 Resolved, That we, the Roman Catholics of Pictou, return 
 our sincere thanks to those of our Brethern at the Mines, 
 New Glasgow, and Merigomish for the praiseworthy manner 
 in which they have come forward and disavowed their concur¬ 
 rence in the proceeedings of those individuals in the City of 
 H alifax. 
 
TO 
 
 MAKLES W WALLACE, ESt-, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF TUB 
 
 HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF NOVA SCOTIA, 
 
 AMD TO THK 
 
 SIGHT REVEREND, REVEREND, AND OTHER 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, 
 
 <&Cg 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 RODERICK MCDONALD, Es*. 
 
 EDITOR OF “THE PICTOU OBSERVER / 9 
 
 ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BT 
 
 A SINCERE AND DEVOTED FRIEND TO THE 
 
 ancient and honorable 
 
 SCOTTISH NATION, 
 
 WHO CLAIMS THE HONOR OF SUBSCRIBING HIMSELF, 
 WITH ALL DUF, SENTIMENTS OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM, 
 THEIR MOST OBEDIENT 
 
 HUMBLE SERVANT. 
 
 HIBERNICUS 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 1 v 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; » 
 
 . ■ V 
 
 r -V! ’ • v~ v. 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 T> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 v 16k i t t ■ » ■ 
 
 ■«. 
 
 
 
 .o j . : 
 
 
LETTERS OF “ HIBERNICUS.” 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 Many persons are anxious to know the cause of 
 the Ecclesiastical tumults that have lately arisen in the 
 Catholic Church in thfe Capital of Nova-Scotia, and whether 
 they are to be attributed to the fault of the Bishop, the Vicar- 
 General, or the people themselves. If the Bishop and Vicar- 
 General be what all impartial persons must admit them to be, 
 zealous, pious and active in the discharge of their various 
 duties, certainly the fault does not lie at their doors, and of 
 course must rest at the thresholds of the people, who, from 
 impulses worse than Satanic pride, ignorance of a manifold 
 description, both practical and theoretical, a false notion of 
 the true honours of a Catholic ahd Catholicism, which spurns 
 the idea of having recourse to 1o\y and mean artifices or sub¬ 
 terfuges to effect the conversion of those who are without the 
 pale of the Catholic Church, as well as the inconsiderate and 
 unmerited ambition to possess, in this Country, the same 
 degree of confidence and respect in the minds the Catholic 
 Clergy that the ancient families do at home, who founded 
 Monasteries, Convents, Hospitals, &c., have most grossly 
 insulted the Episcopal authority, and invaded, and all but 
 plundered it of, its mostsacred privileges and inalienable rights. 
 If the people are not in fault, why libel and defame the 
 Bishop’s character, as plainly to be seen in the pamphlet 
 attached to these Letters, where Resolutions are drawn up, 
 the must insulting in their tendency, not only to the Bishop 
 and Vicar-General, but to all the Catholic Clergy of the 
 Diocese, and even to the Catholic people themselves, if they 
 knew the difference, and then say, “ We have no fault to 
 find with the Bishop; all we want, or desire is, that he should 
 come and live with us,—we care not a rush what countryman* 
 he is, a Scotchman, Irishman, or Englishman,—we have no 
 fault with the Bishop but one, and that is, that we can’t force 
 or compel him to live with us. ?s That they now most grossly 
 belie themselves in making these statements when they finA 
 
2 
 
 that they can’t belie the Bishop, is evident, not only from 
 the Pamphlet, a Report of the St. Mary’s Society in 1341, 
 but also from the accounts given of the tele a teles of the 
 fashionable upstart aristocracy of the day; but also from the 
 language of the enlightened multitude who attended to hear 
 the^valedictory address of the learned and reverend gentleman, 
 whose great love for religion, and a desire to be the first 
 Parish-Priest of the new Parish formed by himself in the 
 Capital of Nova-Scotia, cheered him on in his untoward and 
 unwary career against the Bishop and his Episcopal jurisdic¬ 
 tion in this Diocess, to be seen at length in the letters of the 
 Irish Catholic of Sydney. 
 
 It was the circumstance of their rejecting and opposing 
 the Bishop’s jurisdiction solely on account of his being a 
 Scotchman by birth, and no other, that has caused Hiberni- 
 cus to take up his pen, and to show that on the grounds of 
 greater national independence, from facts evident in history, 
 and the concessions of the best and most learned Irishmen 
 that ever lived, that Irishmen could not reject a Bishop be¬ 
 cause a Scotchman. It was this attempt at the vilification of 
 the Bishop’s character from national prejudices that has caused 
 Hibernicus to take Scotland for bis client ; and that he has 
 advocated her cause to some effect may be concluded from 
 the abuse vented on his head in all quarters by the disaffected 
 to the Bishop’s jurisdiction among the worst description of 
 Irish Catholics in all directions. 
 
 If you hear dreadful roaring emitted from the calabuse, 
 you may be sure that the Nigger-slasher does his duty to some 
 purpose; and if you hear impious Irishmen abusing “Hiber¬ 
 nicus ” for defending the Bishop’s character and that of his 
 Vicar-General, you may rest satisfied that they consider him 
 a formidable opponent; and when they execrate him as more 
 Scotch than the d— Scotch themselves, that they confer on 
 him the most esteemed favour imaginable. l€ But we insist 
 upon it that we have no objection to the Bishop or his coun¬ 
 try ; all we want is, that he should live in the capital of Nova 
 Scotia, and that is the reason that we thought to depose him 
 and to get another Bishop in his place, and this we must con¬ 
 fess we did in an underhand manner, without consulting the 
 Bishop, without whose consent no such appointment can take 
 place, or his Vicar-General, or the Clergy of the Diocess, al¬ 
 ways consulted on such occasions. It could not be supposed 
 that such great men as we are would consult an old Scotch 
 Bishop on such an occasion, or his Vicar-General so sincerely 
 attached to him, or the contemptible, in our eyes. Catholic 
 Clergy of the Diocess. We wish to take the entire manage- 
 
3 
 
 xnent of the Ecclesiastical affairs of the Diocese into our 
 hands, and to exercise, under the new Bishop of our own cre¬ 
 ation, Episcopal powers.” You might as well attempt to pull 
 the Sun out of the firmament, and to light a fir-bush in its 
 place, as to disturb the Bishop, or to introduce a new one 
 here without his consent, the consent of his Vicar-General 
 and the Clergy of his Diocese. You must prove the Clergy 
 here to be unworthy of having the nomination of their Bishop, 
 which you would do if you could, before you cau deprive them 
 at Rome of their undoubted right, according to the canons and 
 discipline of the Church, and usurp it to yourselves ; and 
 should you attempt in your unmanageable pride and ungo¬ 
 vernable upstart insolence, to exercise episcopal jurisdiction, 
 that you will be told truths you will not like to hear, “ that 
 your heads are fitter to do honour to an execution cap than 
 to a mitre, and that the rope with which you would be hanged 
 would be much better calculated to ornament your necks than 
 the cord from which is suspended the pectoral cross, and that 
 you are infinitely better qualified to grace a gallows than a 
 pulpit, under which, no doubt, many of you would, long since, 
 have made your last speech and dying words, had not poverty 
 end wretchedness, and not over a very good name, driven you 
 to this country, and caused you to leave your own for your 
 country’s good, but for the ruin and destruction of the Catho¬ 
 lic Church, if in your power, here. Prouder and higher heads 
 than yours have been brought low enough, and should you 
 continue to oppose the Bishop and his Vicar-General, and the 
 authority of the Catholic Church here, there is scarcely a 
 doubt that upon one of these days you will be excluded from 
 its precincts by Papal authority, and prevented from ever 
 returning to it until the full amount of canonical penances be 
 performed by you. Think, then, on the fate of Sodom and 
 Gomorrha, and how Christ saitb, lL better for the cities of 
 Sodom and Gumorrha, than for those who will not receive 
 you.” Reflect on the fall cf Jerusalem, and why ? because 
 she slayed the Prophets, and those who were sent to*instruct 
 her. Bring to your recollection how Constantinople was 
 almost swallowed up by an earthquake for persecuting, like you 
 their sainted and holy bishop St. John Chrysostom, and if your 
 hearts be not of flint, and your consciences of that sort that 
 you would as soon cut the throat of a Bishop or Priest as that 
 of a fatted calf or lamb, you will repent in time for your sad 
 misfortune in opposing the Bishop’s authority, and disobeying 
 your most excellent Parish Priest, and for most grossly insul¬ 
 ting all the Catholic Clergy of the Diocese, by usurping, in 
 the rudest manner possible, without saying, “ By your leave, 
 
r 
 
 4 
 
 xvr with your permission,” their most sacred and indisputable 
 rights, the nomination of their own ecclesiastical superior or 
 Bishop. Repent, then, in time, poor unfortunate Schisma¬ 
 tics from the Catholic Church of Nuva-Scotia, in the Capital 
 of Nova-Scolia, before you go to that land from whence their 
 is no return, and where nothing is to be witnessed but weep¬ 
 ing and wailing and gnashing of teeth—leaving to your chil¬ 
 dren a malediction as a legacy, that shall descend to the 
 fourth and fifth generation, and no doubt until the end of 
 time. It is better for you to lament here, and weep for the 
 rest of your days, than to burr, everlastingly hereafter in the 
 flames of hell. Do penance, then, now, “ for now is the ac¬ 
 ceptable time, the time of salvation,” to-morrow may come 
 too late and open the vista of an awful futurity to your ruin. 
 Begin this moment to repent, and date your conversion from 
 the minute you read the preceding paragraphs, and inscribe in 
 fleshy characters on your heart, nunc incipiam .—Now I shall 
 begin, and I trust with all mv heart that all will be right with 
 you in time and futurity. But now it may with justice be 
 said that I might as well attempt to add magnitude to a moun¬ 
 tain with a pebble, or cause the sea to overflow with an additi¬ 
 onal drop of water, as to add additional grandeur or great¬ 
 ness to Scotland by anything coming from my pen. I am well 
 aware of that truth ; but did not the boy David kill the giant 
 Goliah ? and will pot a wasp sting to death the greatest man 
 that ever lived ? Did not the little mouse in the fable extri¬ 
 cate the lion caught in the net ? and why might not “ Hiber- 
 nicus ” rend in pieces with bis pen the cobwebed fetters with 
 which a few daring and presumptuous upstarts thought to 
 bind in durance vile a great nation, and thereby induce my 
 poor and illiterate and unsuspecting countrymen into a belief 
 that a native of old Scotland was not worthy to be their eccle¬ 
 siastical superior in New Scotland, or Nova-Scotia, and 
 thereby induce them to rebel against their lawfully and validly 
 consecrated Bishop, the successor of the Apostles in this See, 
 and thereby rank them in the same class as themselves and 
 the ecclesiastical insurgents in Gibraltar last year, who were 
 excommunicated by the Pope himself, the head of all the 
 Churches. Let not this act, however, in which none of the 
 ancient nobility or gentry had a hand, be considered the act 
 of the Irish people. Let the culpable, and they alone, be 
 impeached with it. Let those only who have contracted the 
 odium of it, bear the burden of it ; and thus, in the quaint 
 ‘language of Dr. Thorndike, .“let the saddle be put on the 
 right horse, and the guilty man alone be permitted to sit in it 
 Let Camden, A oltaire and Hume load my Country with 
 
abuse. Lei them deny that in former days she gave birth to 
 Finne M‘Cuils and Connans, &c., and, in more modern days, 
 to Sarsfields and Wellingtons, &c., and it will not in the least 
 offend me. Let others say that Ireland never produced a 
 bard, a historian, or an orator, and I will not assail his ears 
 with the names of an Ossian, a Carolin, a Moore, a Swift, a 
 Stern, a Goldsmith, a Harris, a Ware, an Usher, a Grattan, 
 a Curran, an O’Connell, or a Sheil, &c. ; but the moment 
 any one attacks the honour of his ancient religion, or of the 
 venerable bones of his countrymen now mouldering into dust, 
 that moment, pen in hand, he shall be ready to encounter the 
 most crafty and insidious of his enemies, and either conquer 
 or fall in the struggle. He is also determined to prove, from 
 the best authorities in the Catholic Church, that the grand act 
 of religious worship with Catholics does not consist in hearing 
 eloquent sermons, listening to evening hymns, songs and can¬ 
 ticles, but hearing Mass with attention and devotion, and that 
 God is to be adored by acts of faith, hope, and charity, by 
 prayer and sacrifice : He is also ready to prove that fastings, 
 mortification*, self-denials, frequent communion, doing pen¬ 
 ance in sackcloth and ashes, are recommended not only by 
 the most eminent fathers of the Church, but by Jesus Christ 
 himself, and by the Prophets and Apostles of the New ami 
 Old Testament. He will also give numerous proofs to show 
 why a Universal Church should make use of a universal lan¬ 
 guage against those persons who, not having their upper lips 
 shaven, are no longer Irishmen in point of law, and who wish 
 that the penal law against the Irish language, should be also 
 extended to the Latin language, and that nothing but the lan¬ 
 guage of our task-masters should he made use of by us in our 
 public liturgy. He is also willing to show the reasons for the 
 use of images, holy water, lighted tapers, silence in the Mass, 
 &rc. ; to explain all the ceremonies in the Mass which involve 
 in their developement a knowledge of all the ancient and new 
 Scriptures, and afford the most touching and heart melting 
 subjects for the instruction and exhortation of the people, and 
 leave it to the learned to decide whether he or the persons 
 who say that sermons, hymns, &c., constitute the sole object 
 of Catholic worship, have the best of the argument. He will 
 also prove that lay persons have nothing to do with ecclesias¬ 
 tical affairs, that Christ never chose them to be his Apostles, 
 and “ they should go forth and bear fruit,” &c., and that this 
 attempt to do so is contrary to the orders of Christ, who saith 
 that u no one should assume to himself the order of the 
 Priesthood, unless called like Aaron, for that he himself did 
 not do so, but his Eternal Father who called him.” He will 
 
6 
 
 iso show, from the page of history, that when laymen inter* 
 fered with the Church, they brought ruin and destruction on 
 it, and enriched themselves, with its spoils, and that on the 
 authority of the most learned men that ever lived. I will 
 also undertake to prove that since the time that Christ whip¬ 
 ped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and that the 
 Scribes and Pharisees entered into a council to betray Christ, 
 a more infamous gang was never assembled in the house 
 of God than the leading Schismatics in the Capital of Nova 
 Scotia ; and that if it be possible by lies, treachery, and 
 falsehood to crucify again the Son of God, it shall be done on 
 one of those days in the person of his Representative, the 
 Bishop. He will also show that if laymen are allowed 
 to exercise episcopal jurisdiction in this Country, the Ca¬ 
 tholic Religion will soon be at an end in it. He also ex¬ 
 pects to prove that their doctrines are no more Catholic than 
 their schismalical errors, and are no more Irish than their 
 crimes, now open to public view in the Pamphlet, a Report of 
 St. Mary’s, and this he is determined to demonstrate as clearly 
 as any proposition in Euclid, or as any article of La Religion 
 Geornetrisie of the renowned Pascal. He is also prepared to 
 prove that^the interest of the Catholic Church is not to be 
 advanced by human means, and that to say so is repugnant to 
 the economy of redemption, clearly from the words of the Old 
 and New Testament, from ecclesiastical history, from the 
 decrees of general councils, and the declarations of numerous 
 Popes, particularly Irom the words of the present Pope Gre¬ 
 gory NVI, in his Encydical Letter to all Patriarchs, Primates, 
 Archbishops and Bishops, dated Rome, August 15th, 1842.— 
 “ Embrace with paternal tenderness those in particular who 
 devoted their minds to sacred studies, and to philosophical 
 enquiries. Exhort them and warn them, however, against 
 an imprudent reliance on the unassisted powers of their own 
 minds, which might seduce them from the pathway of truth 
 into the high-road of impiety. Bid them remember that 
 ‘ God is the guide of wisdom, and the director of the wise, 5 
 and that without God it is impossible to understand the nature 
 of God, who teaches men by bis word to know Him. He is 
 a proud, or rather a foolish man, who weighs in a human 
 balance the mysteries of Faith, which surpass all understand- 
 ing, or who confides in the deductions of his own intellect, 
 which, subject to the common fatality of human nature, is 
 necessarily weak and infirm. He also expects to be able to 
 show that all the servants of the Church, pew-openers, organ 
 puffers, bell-ringers, collectors, wardens, and electors, bea¬ 
 dles, grave-diggers, shore-women, or they who wash the 
 
7 
 
 Church, &rc., are dismissible, and ought to be dismissed like 
 any other servants when they become impudent to their 
 Pastors, or persons by whom they are employed ; it being 
 the Pastors, duty to rule and govern the Church, which he 
 cannot do if he has not the appointment and removal of all 
 the under officers of the Church, particularly of those who 
 would excite a spirit of revolt or rebellion against it. 
 
 Whether the Letters of “ Hibernicus 57 please or displease 
 his readers, he is sure to be pleased himself. If the well- 
 affected to the Bishop and his episcopal jurisdiction, as well 
 as the Irish Catholic of Sydney, be pleased with them, most 
 assuredly he will be pleased with them. If those who are 
 opposed to both the Bishop, his Jurisdiction and Country, be 
 displeased with them, most assuredly he will be highly de¬ 
 lighted. By giving this as the first Letter in the Pamphlet it 
 will serve as an Introduction to the second and all the rest. 
 
 I am, yours, 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 The Scbismatical commotions now carrying on 
 in the Catholic Church in the Capital of Nova-Scotia, if 
 we can believe good and well authenticated authority, are a 
 matter of deep-felt concern, and of serious investigation, to 
 the Pope and his Cardinals, at this very moment, in Rome. 
 We have laboured to the best of our power to investigate the 
 cause, and to come to the source of so many evils to the 
 Church of God, threatened to befal it in this our day in this 
 portion of his Spiritual Kingdom and undoubted inheritance,, 
 purchased by the very last drop of his blood, shed upon the 
 gibbet of Calvary. After the most serious and mature deli¬ 
 beration, and exact enquiry into all the circumstances connec¬ 
 ted with the aflair # we have come to the conclusion that pride 
 has fomented it, ignorance of a manifold description fostered 
 it, a false idea of the true honours of a Catholic and of Calho- 
 
 * 
 
Ifcrstn confirmed it, and the blind ambition of attaining end* 
 which never can be come at by the means taken to acquire 
 them, has raised it to its present alarming and revolting point 
 of attitude. Pride, it is evident, has had much to do with 
 this affair, and if it had not, how does it happen that men 
 would dare to obtrude themselves into the sanctuary of their 
 God, the fate of Dan Core and Abiron and their adherents 
 staring them in the face, and the words of kt. Paul to the 
 Romans open to their view, 41 Neither doth any man take 
 the honour to himself, but He that is called by God, as Aaron 
 was. So Christ also did not glorify himself that lie might be 
 made a High-Priest, but He that said unto him thou art my 
 Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Pride, then, a*id no¬ 
 thing else than the same degree of pride that caused Satan to 
 exclaim, u I will ascend on high and dethrone God/’ and which 
 caused him and his rebel host to be buried under the burning 
 surface of the blazing lake, has fomented this revolt against 
 ecclesiastical authority in the Capital of Nova-Scotia. Igno¬ 
 rance of a two-fold description has encouraged and fostered 
 this revolt;—ignorance of their duty to their Pastors, whom 
 they are bound to hear as Christ himself, and who are termed 
 by Divines the Church teaching;—ignorance of their duty, as 
 lay members of the Church to be taught, and whose duty it 
 is to listen attentively to the voice of their Pastors, and to 
 obey it, and to follow him wherever he goeth ; while it cannot 
 be denied that false notions anJ ideas of the true honour of 
 being a Catholic, and of Catholicism have lent their aid to 
 support and strengthen these innovations in Catholic discipline, 
 and to eucourage and sanction these hitherto (save and except 
 in Gibraltar last year) unheard-of attacks upon the episcopal 
 authority in the Church of Nova-Scotia. Ignorance of what 
 the real honour of a Catholic consists in, and the manner to 
 secure this honour for the name of CathoHc in tbe minds of 
 Protestants, has tended not a little to this outbreak on the 
 rules and constitution of our Church in the Capital of Nova- 
 Scotia. Some persons think to raise themselves very high in 
 the opinion of Protestants by means which must eliminate 
 them from the threshold of the Catholic Church, and render 
 them truly despicable in the eyes of Protestants. They 
 think to convince the Protestants that they should not, on 
 account of being Catholics, underrate their very slender and 
 despicable claims to an equal share of intellect with them ; 
 that they do not hold these degrading doctrines of passive 
 obedience to ecclesiastical authority that the ignoTant and 
 less informed sort of Catholics do, and cite their conduct to 
 the Bishop and the ^ icar-General, their Parish Priest, in 
 
0 
 
 corroboration of the truth of their assertions ; that they are 
 not of that intolerant class of enthusiasts who retain a recol¬ 
 lection of the penal code, and who would, in consequence 
 thereof, shew anything like a feeling of distrust or disaffection 
 to those whose ancestors were the framers of it ; and that 
 although they must confess that these laws and statutes were 
 very cruel, still that they most cordially forget and forgive 
 everything of that kind, and that they are ready at any mo¬ 
 ment to join the right hand of friendship with them, and to 
 exhibit their doctrines as they do their wares in the rn 09 t fas¬ 
 cinating and captivating forms. They even tel! them that in 
 fact scarcely any distinction exists, if the truth was known, 
 between the doctrines of the Catholic Church and those of 
 other religious denominations,—that Sermons and Hymns in 
 their eyes—not the sacrifice of the Mass—formed the grand 
 action of their religious worship. 
 
 W ere I a member of the Protestant Church I would answer 
 these lads according to their folly. I would procure Dr. 
 Butler’s General Catechism, and before I would put any 
 questions, I would say to them—“ You say you forgive us for 
 the penal laws enacted by our forefathers: that is very kind 
 of you; but who asked you to forget or forgive,'or who cares 
 whether you do or not ? The injured man, if he be a good 
 Christian, we all know easily forgives, while the man who 
 injures, if he be a bad Christian, never forgives If you for¬ 
 get and forgive from human motives, and not from the purest 
 impulse of Christian charity, and endeavour to make us believe 
 that you are grateful rather than chagrined at the conduct of 
 our forefathers in forming penal statutes against the religion 
 you profess—if your forgiveness does not proceed from the 
 impulse of Christian charity—you must be the meanest and 
 most servile creatures on the face of the earth : you are 
 as degraded, in my eyes, as the unfortunate negro who is 
 compelled to say, “ tank you, massa,” for every stroke of the 
 coup de beuf , alias, cowhide, he receives, and guilty of as base 
 sycophantic duplicity as a certain diplomatist not long since 
 dead, of whom Louis the Eighteenth said, “ If you were to 
 kick him ever so hard on the posted, if it answered his pur¬ 
 poses, he could laugh you in the face.’’ You love the Protes¬ 
 tants and the descendants of those people who formed the 
 penal code, and you wish to convert them to your schismati- 
 cal confederacy, but why not love and obey your Bishop 
 which, according to the doctrines of the eleventh lesson of 
 your Catechism, you are bound to hear and obey as Christ 
 himself, and before you attempt to convert others first to con- 
 
 B 
 
vert yourselves, recoileating the words of Christ, Mtdict owra 
 teipsum —Doctor, cure yourself. 
 
 But you say the Mass is not the grand act of religious 
 worship, and your Catechism, lesson 26th, says, “ It is the 
 first and most necessary act of religion, whereby we acknow¬ 
 ledge God , f supreme dominion over.os and our total depen- 
 dance upon him.” And if you ever read the Council of Trent 
 on this subject, you would know that you are bound to hear 
 Mass under pain of mortal sin on all Sundays and kept holi¬ 
 days throughout the year, while you are not under simila pe¬ 
 nalties to assist at Sermons, Evening Hymns, &c. If you be 
 good Catholics the doctrines contained in the catechism must 
 be false, and if the doctrines contained in this catechism be 
 really and truly the doctrines of Catholics you must be bad, 
 very bad Catholics indeed. 
 
 Did you ever hear any of our great preachers ? Did you 
 ever read the sermons of Archbishop Tilletson, of Bishops 
 Atterbury, Hoadly, Jeremy Taylor, Bedell, &c.? Did you 
 ever read the sermons of Dean Kirwan, of Killala, who first 
 officiated as a Catholic Priest and then as a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, and of whose eloquence the immortal 
 (irattan, speaking in the Irish House of Commons, said, “ He 
 shook one world with the thunders of another,” and again, 
 alluding to his not being advanced to the Bench of Bishops, 
 he exclaimed, <l the curse of Swift \s upon him—to be born a 
 man of genius and an Irishman and to have used it for the 
 good of his country.” Did you ever hear or read the works 
 of the celebrated Protestant Primate of Ireland, Archbishop 
 Usher, to whom the renowned Cardinal Richelieu sent his 
 portrait set in diamonds, as a mark of esteem, and to whom 
 the Archbishop in return sent a most beautiful pair of Irish 
 greyhounds, which the cardinal received with every mark of 
 deference for the donor, and which he ever afterwards as long 
 a9 he lived caressed and took all possible care of.—This is the 
 great Cardinal Richelieu of whom the Emperor of Austria, 
 standing over his tomb, (to be seen in the Cburch of the Sor- 
 bonne at Paris,) exclaimed, “ I would give half my Empire to 
 have such a man to enable me to govern the other half.” 
 Did you ever hear of the celebrated Claude, who contended 
 in a public controversy with the immortal Bossuet, the glory 
 and ornament of the French clergy in his day, and who was 
 so struck with the force and depth of his profound learning and 
 erudition that he fell on his knees and invoked the aid of the 
 Holy Ghost ? Did you ever read the sermons of Doctor 
 Hugh Blair, Minister of the High Church of Scotland, or ever 
 
11 
 
 take a peep at the works of Abbadie, of Mosheim, of Arch¬ 
 bishops Jewel, Watson, &c. ? Did you ever hear any of our 
 great preachers in the Capital of Nova Scotia, and then let me 
 ask what are yotir newly imported preachers to those or these 
 great men whose names I have just now enumerated ?—No 
 more than the buzzing of a fly to the roaring of the lion, the 
 whisperings of the gentle zephyrs to the thunderpeal which 
 causes the vaulted roof of the heavens to re-echo its terrors. 
 
 “But we have never studied in a University—save and 
 except you call a small college built behind a pigsty in a bog 
 a University—we never went farther than the black bull in the 
 
 * Reading-made-easy, 5 or George and the Dragon, in the 
 
 * Child’s New Plaything,* and we never ambitioned higher 
 literary attainments than to be able to wy, in intelligible 
 English, ( Freestone !—Black Turf!—six sods a penny!’ in 
 some neighbouring town or village : of course, then, it is not 
 in our power to give an opinion much less criticise these great 
 men now mentioned by you.” 
 
 That is very true; but is it not very presumptuous of you 
 to attempt to instruct us in our religious duties, who consi¬ 
 der the most eminent men of the age—who studied in the first 
 colleges here and in foreign countries—no more than fit to do 
 that duty ? Indeed if we saw you truly pious and religious— 
 obedient to your Bishop and Parish Priest, the Vicar General 
 —we could listen to you with pleasure; but when we see you 
 aiming at the deposition of the one and the ruin of the other, 
 we cannot help treating you with well merited contempt. 
 But you want us to go over to you and to join your society, to 
 enable you to fight w ith greater might against your Bishop 
 and his representative the Vicar-General ? ‘Yes, we do. 0! 
 how our eyes would glisten with gladness if we saw you in the 
 church, listening attentively to our matchless orator, and to 
 see your mouths opening with astonishment at the volleys of 
 eloquence discharged from the warlike instrument of his rhe¬ 
 torical arsenal—not unlike in shape or the material of its 
 composition the weapon which Samson used when he slew and 
 eflected such destruction among the Philistines.’ Did you 
 ever hearof theEarl of Murray, natural brother to Mary Queen 
 of Scots, who raised an army to defend the Queen which he 
 turned on herself, and after making her resign her crown and 
 imprisoning her in Loch Leven, afterwards defeated her in 
 battle, and caused her to seek protection from her own sub¬ 
 jects at Lhe hands of Queen Elizabeth, who, after having 
 detained her eighteen years in prison, subsequently ordered 
 her to be beheaded in the jear 1585, and “ to exchange, I 
 
12 
 
 (rust,” in her own words, the night before her execution, “ a 
 mortal for an immortal crown of glory.” 1 You are exceedingly 
 anxious for us to join your schismatical society to enable you 
 to depose the head of the Catholic Church in this country, 
 and either to imprison him, like the Gibraltarites last year, 
 or to banish him from it for ever ; and you make use of the 
 most barefaced lies to effect that purpose—representing your 
 Bishop seventy-five years old and bedridden, knowing in your 
 heart and souls, if you have any, that it was a falsehood. You 
 want us to join your society and to share your shame, like the 
 fox that lost his tail in a trap, and, not wishing to be laughed 
 at by all the other foxes, advised them to take off their tails— 
 you wish us to join you that when you are laughed at on 
 account of your impotent attacks on the Bishop and Vicar 
 General, you may have as many as possible to share the odium 
 and disgrace with you. We have not lost the tail of our ho¬ 
 nour by attacking a good and a virtuous Bishop and his Yicar 
 General, and we are determined we never shall. In future 
 when you speak to us on this subject we will say, Old Schis¬ 
 matical foxes, shew your tails,” and laugh at you most cor¬ 
 dially. Suppose we treated any article in your store with one 
 half the contempt we have^treated your religion, or used words 
 conveying the same contempt for it as the words idolatrous, 
 damnable, and superstitious, and publicly publishing it, how 
 would you look t Would you open your lips to us ? I am 
 sure you would not. If you then thought as much of your 
 religion as you do of your temporal affairs, you would not 
 speak one word to us much less attempt to convert us to your 
 schism. Let judgment, however, come from the house of God: 
 convert yourselves first and then commence conversion with 
 us. Obey your prelates, &c. If we wish to know your doc¬ 
 trine we can have more for three pence—what is contained in 
 this Catechism—than you have in your heads; and if we want 
 information on that head we know to whom to make our ap¬ 
 plication—to the venerable Bishop himself or his vicegerent 
 the Vicar-(2eneral~not to such scape-goats and scape-gallowses 
 as you are.” 
 
 Were I a Protestant—and if I were I think I could be as 
 kind-hearted and as liberal-minded as many of the most en¬ 
 lightened and philanthropic of that religious denomination—I 
 would answer such fellows in the above manner, and I am sure 
 I would have no reason to exclaim, u Exeant Platter-faces, 
 Clod-hoppers, Bog-trotters, Mitre-fighters, Priest-catchers, 
 Pickpockets, Ringleaders, Jack Ketches, &c;” and if I had a 
 musical instrument convenient I should most assuredly give 
 
1 
 
 13 
 
 them an opportunity of beating time to the air of “ The 
 Rogue's March to the Hulk,” as they should trot out of my 
 house. 
 
 Nothing can be more revolting to the mind of a high-spirited 
 and liberal Protestant than these cringing pretensions to an 
 affected liberality, unasked and uncalled for—pretending to 
 love our Protestant neighbours merely because they are Pro¬ 
 testants, and bacause they were once our lords and masters, 
 and formed penal laws to keep ourselves and our religion un¬ 
 der—which is so generally the case with the would-be-seem- 
 ingly pious Catholics, alias Schismatics, of a neighbouring 
 city. 
 
 Independence of character will procure the respect of the 
 greatest of enemies, whether they be men or women of a de¬ 
 termined and straightforward character, under all circum¬ 
 stances. When Alexander the Great came to visit Diogenes, 
 sitting in his tub, he was so taken with him that he told him 
 he should grant him any request—even the half of his king¬ 
 dom if he required it. “ Stand aside,” said Diogenes, 41 and 
 do not deprive me of that which you cannot give me—the 
 reflection of the rays of the sun.” If he admired him before 
 lie made this reply how much more so after he made it may 
 be conjectured from the reply of Alexander — lt If I was not 
 Alexander I would be Diogenes!” When Shane O’Neil stood 
 before Queen Elizabeth and was accused of rebellion, she 
 asked him who he was. u I am,” said he, an enemy to Queen 
 Elizabeth, and subject to none ;” and this reply secured him 
 his life and a pension for the rest of his days. When Felim 
 O’Rourke, Prince of Western Breifne, was brought before the 
 same Queen for a similar offence, he refused to kneel down 
 and kiss the hand of majesty. He was asked why he would 
 not kneel down; he auswered that he never was nor would 
 be taught that ceremony. ” Do you not,” said one of the 
 courtiers, <( kneel down before the images of your saints V ’ 
 14 I do,” said he, fi but Queen Elizabeth, in my opinion, is 
 neither a saint nor the image of a saint.” What favor do 
 you ask of me V 7 rejoined the Queen. Li That I may be 
 hanged with a gad, after my own country fashion.” The 
 Queen, astonished at his undaunted bravery and manly inde¬ 
 pendence of mind, immediately set him free. Sycdphants and 
 flatterers are always despised, whilst high-minded and inde¬ 
 pendent men are always respected. They either get a carte 
 blanche to say what they please, and are termed jesters or 
 buffoons, at court, or are severely punished and banished from 
 it. It was so in the court of France, it we can credit the 
 
14 
 
 witty Erasmus, when on a certain occasion one of the cour¬ 
 tiers discovered a certain animalcula on the king’s garment, 
 arid took it off very gently, but the king insisting on being teld 
 what it was, he said it was a gentleman’s companion, which so 
 pleased the king that he rewarded him handsomely. A syco¬ 
 phant shortly after affected to render the same service to the 
 king, and the king inquiring what it was,he replied that it was a 
 flea— u That is a dog’s companion,” said the king, aud order¬ 
 ed him to be severely punished. And now let me ask what 
 are these fellows with treacle on their tongues and honey on 
 their lips, who would induce Protestants to go hear Catholic 
 Sermons, and to assist at Mass, but downright sycophants and 
 parasites of the lowest and meanest order. Yes ! it is the 
 basest and meanest description of flattery to be endeavoring 
 to procure favor with men whose forefathers, a few years ago, 
 obliged us to conceal our own religious worship, and the place 
 it was performed in from the Priest-catchers of the day, and 
 compelled us, under severe penalties, to assist at their wor¬ 
 ship: by constantly inviting them to go and hear your wonder¬ 
 ful and matchless preacher, while you are underhand carrying 
 on a most iniquitous war against your Bishop and daily violat¬ 
 ing the principles of fraternal charity by giving scandal and 
 bad example. If your great preacher ba the man you say he 
 is you might as well attempt to hide the sun at mid-day as to 
 prevent his light of shining upon us. If he be not the great 
 man that you say he is you might as well attempt to enlighten 
 the world with a dark lantern as to force people to believe it. 
 
 “ But we are for great preachers, and nothing else.” So you 
 may, but your Catechism for fasting, praying, and alms- 
 deeds, and excludes peoj le from the Church who do not go to 
 confession, and receive a* Easter or thereabouts, and in death 
 deprives them of Christ i n 1 urial. If we believe your cate¬ 
 chism we cannot believe ' on, and if we believe you, we cannot 
 believe your catechism; but we believe the catechism to con¬ 
 tain the real and true doctrines of Catholics, therefore, we 
 believe the catechism, and do not believe you, nor set the least 
 value upon what you may be pleased to say on the subject. 
 
 “ But we are the Catholic Aristocracy of this country, and 
 the Bishops and Priests ought to treat us with the same de¬ 
 gree of respect that the Bishops and Priests treat the Aristo¬ 
 cracy in the old country.” That cannot be the case for many 
 a year in this country, and never, if you do not change your 
 conduct in toto. The Catholic Priests herg, as well as at 
 home, are aware of the claims of the ancient families to res¬ 
 pect and veneration from them—\v4iose ancestors founded 
 
15 
 
 convents and religious houses, anti endowed the Church with 
 Church Lands, &:c. icc.—and to the descendants of these 
 families, whether they be Catholics or Protestants, they are 
 sure to pay all marks of respect and attention. If I take up 
 the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church, by Lingard, the Mo - 
 nasticon Anglicanum , orCobbetCs History of the Reformation, 
 I find not only the most noble and best families in England 
 founding and endowing convents, but even the very kings dur¬ 
 ing the Heptarchy of that country: thus, I find the King of 
 Northumbria endowing the Church that St. Wilfred erected 
 at Rippon; King Ethelred assisted at the dedication of the 
 Church of Winchester, which St. Etbelwold performed, while 
 Kenulf, King of Mercia assisted at the consecration and endow¬ 
 ed the Church of Winchelcomb, and selected it as the place 
 of his interment, and of his family for ever. In the History 
 of Scotland by Adam Scott, by Archbishop Spotteswood, and 
 by Dr. Robertson, we find Eugene, the 39th king of Scotland, 
 founding a convent at Icolmkille, and his successors, Kings 
 Fergus the Second, and Eugene the Second, richly endowing 
 and patronising it. King Malcolm the third was also a great 
 friend and the founder of many Monastic Institutions, whilst 
 his son David, the sainted and anointed Kingf of Scotland, gave 
 nearly half the crown lands to the Church, which caused one 
 of his descendants (James IV.) to say, “That although he 
 might be a great saint, and one of the greatest benefactors to 
 the Church, still he was the dearest sight the crown of Scot¬ 
 land ever saw or witnessed.” In Ireland, on the authority of 
 Dr. Burke, Bishop ef Ossory, in his Hibernia Dominicana J and 
 of Ware, and Harris, and of (VHalloran, and of Francis 
 Grosse, Esq. F. S. A., we find Melachlin, King of Meath, 
 founding the Monastery of Beotive, towards the middle of the 
 twelfth century—Malach, King of Ulster, about the same 
 period, founding and endowing the convent of Mellifont, in 
 the County of Louth, while we find the Cathedral Church and 
 Chapel of Cashel, built by Cuillenan M‘Cormac, King and 
 Archbishop of Munster, and the O Connors, Kings of Con¬ 
 naught and of all Ireland, founding many convents and churches 
 in their own province, and in all parts of Ireland. The various 
 branches and descendants of these ancient and royal families 
 were distinguished for similar rrfs of munificence to the 
 church, and for their patronage oil e-clergy before as well as 
 since the suppression of religious lonses and Institutions. And 
 now let me ask any intelligent w<-l* disposed man, is it rational 
 that a mere cobweb aristocracy of yesterday, who never enti¬ 
 tled themselves by word, action or deed to the love and vene- 
 
1C) 
 
 ration of the Catholic clergy, but who have done every thing 
 to insult their feelings ami that of their venerable Bishop, and 
 Vicar Genera!—by endeavouring to depose the one and malign 
 the other—should lay claims like to theirs to the affection and 
 respect of the Catholic Priesthood? They have not only 
 invaded the rights and privileges of the Bishop and Vicar Ge¬ 
 neral, but have had the most unheard of audacity to usurp the 
 undoubted privilege of the secular Clergy—to name their own 
 Ecclesiastical Superior, with the approbation of the existing 
 Prelate and the Court of Rome. At the election of a Bishop 
 at home, so far from such fellows being allowed to be present, 
 the first Catholic Lord or Nobleman would not attempt to 
 stop in the chapel after the Mass of the Holy Ghost, pro 
 eligendo JEpiscopo , was finished. Why then should such low 
 characters as the plebians of yesterday—the Fuss-ball honor- 
 ables of the day—be allowed to take such liberties with impu¬ 
 nity? 
 
 We know our Bishop—we know our Vicar General. YV hen 
 the clergy go to their houses, they receive them with open 
 arms, and convert their houses, should they be sick, into 
 Nosocomeia 3 , or Hospitals, for their reception, and with saint¬ 
 like humility attend to the wants of their sick beds. Vs hat 
 have the insolent, upstart, and low-bred ci-devant aristocracy 
 of the Capital of Nova Scotia done for the Catholic Clergy of 
 Nova Scotia? Nothing; but whenever they could or whenever 
 it lay in their power, persecuted, maligned, and defamed, and 
 even have gone so far as to lay their sacriligeous hands on 
 the mitre itself, and to attempt to wrest the crozier out of the 
 hands of the venerable Prelate who bears it. It is high time 
 for the Catholic Clergy to exclaim, “ odi profanum vulgus et 
 arceo .” Persons of a certain class and order of society must 
 be taught to keep their distance. In vanumfremuerumgentes 
 ct populi meditati sunt mania adversus Chrisium et Dominum 
 suuni . To no purpose have these wicked pagans meditated 
 the destruction of the religion of Christ, and the annihilation 
 of his very name— Dirumpamus vincula corum ct projiciamus a 
 nobis jugum ipsoram. Let them exclaim—Now is the time to 
 fritter their chains in pieces; .and to reduce their degrading 
 yoke to ashes, and to ding it to the winds of heaven. 
 
 It is then evident that pride, ignorance, inherent meanness, 
 and a want of sense of th* true honour of a Catholic and of 
 Catholicism, as well as a desire to usurp privileges and honors 
 which do not belong to them, have occasioned the complicated 
 disease which now rages in the Schismatical confederacy op¬ 
 posed to the true interests of the Catholic Religion ; and who, 
 
17 
 
 to gain the siirallest little triumph of momentary duration for 
 their cause, lie like Parthians.—In the public papers, after 
 endeavouring to deprive Doctor Fraser of his Episcopal 
 honors, they substitute in their place old age and infirmity, to 
 which, thank God, lie is as yet—and I trust will be for many 
 years—a stranger. Of the person or persons who have reported 
 that the Bishop is seventy-five years old, and confined to his 
 bed from indisposition, I will not hesitate to say, whether he 
 wears the cowl of a monk or the fashionable riding-coat of the 
 day —Parthis Mendacior — 
 
 A greater liar Parlhia never bred, 
 
 Whether hare or Copuced his head. 
 
 Hoping, however, that they will in time, before they go to 
 to that land from whence there is no return, repent of the 
 evil they have endeavoured to effect by the foulest and basest 
 means, the grossest misrepresentation, and save themselves 
 m time and eternity from the most awful visitations of the 
 divine wrath, is the sincere and heartfelt desire of, my dear 
 sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 S IK,— 
 
 The conviction on my mind of my own incompe¬ 
 tency to do justice to the subject, from the exalted rank and 
 well known worth of the individual it concerns, and the expec¬ 
 tation of its having been taken up by some abler pen has been 
 the cause, notwithstanding the fullness and intensity of my 
 feelings, of remaining thus long silent on the occasion. From 
 the paragraph inserted in your esteemed and valuable weekly 
 journal, it is evident that you and your readers are not alto¬ 
 gether unacquainted with the subject. It relates to certain 
 false insinuations regarding the jurisdiction of the venerated 
 and beloved of all good men, the Roman Catholic Prelate of 
 this Diocese, whose jurisdiction, from the intimations of cer¬ 
 tain newspapers, has been placed iu the hands of a Foreign 
 
 c 
 
IS 
 
 Bishop, who of all men (although zealous in defence of his 
 own) would be the last to interfere with the canonical rights 
 of any other Prelate in the world. The Archbishop of 
 Dublin is a man of too exalted a character either to covet or 
 desire, much less to accept of what belongs to another ; and 
 the intimation of his being capable of doing so—recalling to 
 his mind the gospel maxim, “ The receiver is as bad as the 
 thief,”—will fill the aged and hoary-headed Prelate with a tem¬ 
 porary confusion, and cause him to reject the odious imputa¬ 
 tion with a sinless indignation. It has been openly asserted 
 that the people of a certain city, of their own authority, 
 applied to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Dub¬ 
 lin for Priests to attend to their spiritual wants, and that (he 
 Archbishop immediately complied with their request, and of 
 his own authority sent out two Priests invested by h ; rn with 
 jurisdiction to discharge the duties of their holy office in this 
 Diocese. This statement evidently intimates what is false 
 and suppresses what is true. It intimates that the people 
 have without the concurrence or consent of the Bishop of 
 Nova Scotia, wrote to the Archbishop of Dublin, and that he, 
 without this consent or concurrence, or what might be termed 
 application from the proper quarter, immediately acceded to 
 their wishes, and, in the full plentitude of his Archiepiscopal 
 power, granted them j urisdiction in a Diocese over which he 
 has no control or connection whatsoever ; and suppresses what 
 is triW2—that the application was made by the Archbishop 
 of Dublin in language the most courteous, and which does 
 honour both to the head and heart of that venerable Prelate. 
 Nay, the Archbishop of Dublin, in his letter to the Bishop of 
 Nova Scotia, most sincerely regrets that he could not prevail 
 on the Priests, the object of his own choice—and who at first 
 consented to come — to put their intentions in execution, while 
 he expresses a heartfelt wish that they who were not of his 
 own choice might fulfil the object of their mission, and meet 
 with the approbation of his Lordship of Nova Scotia. The 
 letter of the Archbishop can be seen, and it is a fact (and one 
 fact, if we can believe the great La Harpe is worth a thou¬ 
 sand arguments,) that with regard to the lay influence not one 
 word is mentioned, which proves that the venerable Pre¬ 
 late of Dublin never did intend for a single moment to recog¬ 
 nise the right of any portion of the people of this country to 
 apply to him for spiritual guides, as their lawfuT ecclessiasti- 
 cal superior. He is too good, too just a man to be guilty of 
 such an act. How would he feel were certain parishioners of 
 Dublin to write without his approbation Doctor Fraser for 
 
19 
 
 Priests lo exercise jurisdiction in his Diocese. Let him make 
 Doctor Fraser's case Iiis own, and he shall have the reply in 
 the universally admitted as well as known principle of natural 
 as well as revealed religion— c< As you would wish,” See. Nay, 
 the writer of these few lines boldly and firmly asserts, and 
 he yields to no man living in love, respect and admiration of 
 the piety^ learning, and numerous virtues of the Archbishop of 
 Dublin, that the Archbishop of Dublin has no jurisdiction 
 whatever in this Diocese—not even as much as the humblest 
 Priest who possesses faculties—and he is confident were he 
 to land on our shores, although he would be received by the 
 Bishop of Nova Scotia and his Very Reverend Vicar Gene¬ 
 ral with open arms, he would not discharge the humblest duties 
 of his ministry without the leave of the constituted ecclesi¬ 
 astical authority of the place or part cf the country in 
 
 which he should land. No ordinarily instructed Catholic 
 
 * 
 
 admits any spiritual jurisdiction over their Bishop, in this 
 country save that of <l the head of all the Churches,” (in the 
 language of modern phraseology,) commonly designated by our 
 hitherto unenlightened parentage, the Pope. Nay, it is 
 boldly asserted, and without fear of contradiction, that nume¬ 
 rous Catholics, under existing circumstances would court the 
 crown of martyrdom sooner than acknowledge any other, and 
 lay down their lives in support of their belief and conviction 
 on Ibis point. 
 
 But it is broadly intimated by men of the most enlightened 
 minds and highly cultivated talents, (if we can believe their 
 quondam companions,) to be found in every little town and 
 village throughout tlie country in offices of the meanest and 
 lowest servitude, that the venerated and venerable Bishop of 
 Nova Scotia is not fit to discharge the high duties of his call¬ 
 ing, and that the Holy Spirit which has appointed him to rule 
 this portion off he Church of God has committed a most egre¬ 
 gious blunder in naming him to his high office, and in appoint¬ 
 ing him to preside over so dignified and enlightened a portion 
 of his spiritual inheritance.— Quidfacieni magistri quando lalia 
 ciudenl fares ? 
 
 It* unbounded charity, universal philanthropy, great and 
 extensive learning, a first-rale linguist, speaking many lan¬ 
 guages with ease and facility, entitle him to the rank of Bishop 
 lie cedes to no man in Nova Scotia, nay, to any man in any 
 country in the world ; and of this fact, many persons from 
 personal observation—without high-flying pretensions to deep 
 erudition or to what does not belong to them, but from their 
 own good sense and sound judgment, and from what they 
 
20 
 
 could hear and sec on a late occasion in Piciou—are practically 
 convinced. Nay, they who are most intimately acquainted 
 with the Bishop, discover in every feature of his character the 
 traits of a good Bishop, as given by St. Paul— u It behoveth 
 a Bishop to be without blame, sober, prudent, hospitable, 
 learned, temperate, modest, not avaricious,” &c. Even the 
 most inveterate and opposed to his religious creed should 
 irreluctantly admit—should they take the words of the ever- 
 memorable Queen Elizabeth for their standard, 4t the counte¬ 
 nance is the index of the mind,”—that he is a good and most 
 excellent man, and exclaim, in the facetious language of the 
 Poet— 
 
 ** If to his lot some Popish errors fall, 
 
 Look in his face and you’11 forget them alL” 
 
 But he is a Scotchman, and a native of the Highlands of 
 Scotland —Quid Inde therefore, he is not fit to be Bishop 
 where there is a large congregation Irish, and who are opposed 
 to his country and the land of his birth. This argument makes 
 as strongly against our illustrious Governor as against the 
 Bishop, and plainly shows what people would do if they 
 dreaded the military prowess of Great Britain as little as they 
 do the authority and spiritual supremacy of the Pope. But 
 let us pursue the train of argument a little.—St. Patrick was, 
 upon the authority of the learned Alban Butler, a Scotchman; 
 therefore he was not fit to be the Apostle of Ireland. St. 
 Palladius, the Apostle of Scotland was a RomaD, and so w r as 
 St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, therefore they were 
 not fit to discharge the duties of their ministry. St. Peter, 
 St. Andrew, St. Thomas. &c. were natives of Judea, and of 
 course, on similar conclusions of popular logic, w ere not fit for 
 their high destination in the different countries so foreign from 
 the land of their birth. Conclusive reasoning indeed! But 
 we must go to school again before we can admit such palpable, 
 self-evident, logical deductions. 
 
 But, though the Bishop is a Scotchman, and a native of the 
 Highlands of Scotland, his heart is formed of the purest clay 
 ot his native land, and his heart-strings have been woven in a 
 frame of the finest and most delicate texture, which vibrate 
 with peculiar energy to tho calls of suffering humanity, in no 
 matter what shape or form it presents itself—without distinc¬ 
 tion of creed or country. Yes, he is a native of the High¬ 
 lands of Scotland, a descendant of the Highland Chiefs and 
 ancient clans of Scotland, and possesses a mind as elevated 
 above deception and duplicity, as impregnable to falsehood and 
 delusion as the lofty mountains that gave him birth. He is a 
 
2 1 
 
 native of Scotland, and a descendant of warriors who, through 
 blood and carnage almost indescribable, preserved their ancient 
 monarchy from the days of King Fergus, upwards of 300 years 
 before the birth of Christ down to the days of King James, 
 who united in his person a just claim to succession to the 
 crown, not only of Scotland but also to that of England. Yes, 
 he is of a race of men who never bent their necks voluntarily 
 to the yoke of a stranger, or ever submitted to a disgraceful 
 impost; to which circumstance the present Lord Mayor of the 
 City of Dublin alluding, thus expresses himself—“ They took 
 to their mountains and to their claymors and resisted unto 
 death the odious impost.” Doctor Fraser is a Scotchman, 
 and a native of the Highlands of Scotland, and if history 
 speaks truth he has no reason to be ashamed of his country. 
 He is Catholic Dishop of Nova Scotia, and were all the Ca¬ 
 tholics of Nova Scotia assembled together (I assert it with 
 unshaken confidence,) were I to cry out in a loud and audible 
 voice, u Long live Doctor Fraser, Bishop of Nova Scotia!” 
 that the comparatively few negatives to such a proposition 
 would be lost and become inaudible in the universal and heart¬ 
 felt response of “ Amen! Amen! again and again Amen !” 
 
 But the Bishop is a Scotchman, and no Scotchman should 
 be allowed to officiate as a Clergyman in a country abounding 
 with Scotchmen—in which more than half the Catholics are 
 Scotchmen who speak their own ancient dialect and under¬ 
 stand no other. This has been not only said but acted upon. 
 —The young men of Scottish parentage, studying at the place 
 which of all others should be the sanctuary of Christian cha¬ 
 rity and learning, are threatened to be insulted by an enraged 
 populace; anonymous letters are written—their ecclesiastical 
 gowns threatened to be taken off—and obliged, with hearts 
 filled with the bitterest of disappointment, to return to the 
 hearth of their parents, to impart to them their sad tidings, 
 and to make them sharers of the burden of their grief. And 
 is this foul charge to be stigmatized on the character of Irish¬ 
 men? Forbid it truth, justice, and humanity. Irishmen have 
 been taught to blush at the name of a M 4 Murragh in former 
 days, and in modern times at the conduct of a Heppenslall, 
 the walking gallows, and of an O’Brien, the infamous informer 
 of’98; and no doubt every honest Irishman will feel the flush 
 of just indignation kindling on his countenance ho hears ot 
 the treatment of the young aspirants to the Priesthood, of 
 Scottish extraction, and dissever every union, either as Irish¬ 
 men or Catholics, with men who could act so unhallowed or 
 *nchrislianlike# part. 
 
22 
 
 u 0 ! bul it is flic love of religion that causes us (o act as 
 we do.” O yes !—it is the love of religion which even in an 
 enemy discovers a brother that causes you to act such an igno¬ 
 minious and ungenerous part. O yes,—no doubt it was the 
 love of religion which caused men in gone by days to murder 
 each other for the love of God, to smash down the altars at 
 which they once sacrificed, and to immolate with fire and 
 faggot upwards of fifty millions of beings on the altar of reli¬ 
 gious discord. — See O’Leary’s Treatise on Intolerance ; and to 
 make it, in the language of the same learned divine, a problem¬ 
 atical question whether religion has dune more good than harm 
 to mankind. It was love of religion that caused three Priests 
 to impeach the venerable primate Plunkett, in the reign of 
 Charles the Second, with high treason, and to have him hanged, 
 disembowelled, and quartered. It was love for religion, and 
 zeal for its promotion that caused the Gibraltarites to send 
 their sainted Bishop Hughes last year to prison, and to incur 
 the severest censure of the head of all the Churches, and to 
 obey, without delay, the peremptory orders of Lord Brougham 
 that the venerable Prelate should be immediately set at liber¬ 
 ty; and, no doubt, holy and extraordinary zeal has caused a 
 well-intentioned people to raise their voice against their law¬ 
 ful Bistiop and ecclesiastical superior in Nova Scotia. Be it 
 so. 
 
 The venerable son of the lowly and humble St. Francis has 
 by (his time visited the Archbishop of Dublin, and in plaintive, 
 melancholy accents, deplored the opposition to his zeal and 
 pious labours made by the Bishop of the Diocese in the Capi¬ 
 tal of Nova Scoti?. He has bewailed, no doubt, the opposi¬ 
 tion made by the Bishop to his incessant labours in the con¬ 
 fessional, his uninterrupted visitations of the sick bed. and 
 St. John Chrysostam-like exhortations to the people—often- 
 tims repeating and impressing on their minds that he would be 
 torn to pieces sooner than see the Church divided, or the 
 sheep of her fold scattered. He has, no doubt, told the ven¬ 
 erable Archbishop that the Bishop of Nova Scotia was offended 
 with him because he did not endeavour to support the dignity 
 of his ministry by moving about in his easy car, clad in soft 
 garments, so unlike those of his order, and swaggering at the 
 levees of courts rather than in the discharge of the painful 
 duties of the tribunal of penance, baptising infants and burying 
 the d*ad, and similar drudgery, to which the Catholic Priests 
 are bound, under the severest penalties of a temporal and spi¬ 
 ritual nature, to discharge, lie may show his testimonials of 
 conduct from the people he has so much—will I say—injured, 
 
rather than edified. But I have my misgivings on the subject, 
 if the venerable Prelate does not exclaim, “There is 
 something rotten in the State of Denmark!’* We must wait, 
 in the words of the Italian proverb, until we hear the two bells 
 ring, or both sides of the story. It is an old proverbial ex¬ 
 pression, that a monk seldom praises the convent he runs 
 away from, or the Bishop, from whose Diocese for reasons 
 best known to himself, he is obliged to depart. 
 
 He will next visit the eternal city. If he enters it as a 
 member of the order of St. Francis, he must, before he at¬ 
 tempts to approach the sacred walls of the city of Martyrs, 
 get leave fiom the General of his order. lie must then be 
 clothed in the coarse habit of the order of St. Francis, with¬ 
 out bat, shoes or stockings, with sandals on his bare legs, his 
 neck bared, attend to all the duties of bis community, and 
 practise (if not in heart, at least externally.) the virtue of hu¬ 
 mility, he will then, in the course of a few days, be called on 
 to give an account of the object of his mission to Rome, and 
 to explain his pros, and cons, before the sacred consistory of 
 Cardinals assembled in the Propaganda on the occasion, who 
 will view him lynx-eyed, and read with their looks the very 
 thoughts of his heart. He will in all probability undergo a 
 short examination in theology, church history and canon law; 
 and on bringing a charge against his Bishop he will be bound 
 to substantiate it on the clearest evidence. Nay, he will not 
 be allowed to depart from Rome until matters on both sides 
 are satisfactorily cleared up; and if it appears that the Bishop 
 is not in fault, the British Consul, and his rights as a British 
 subject will stand his best friends. No doubt but the splen¬ 
 did talents of the gentleman will dazz’e the eyes of the Cardi¬ 
 nals at Rome; they will wonder at his vast scientific acquire¬ 
 ments, and inexhaustible fund of theological knowledge, and 
 fearing that the rich specimens of eloquence with which he has 
 been wont to set a certain city in a flame might set the Vati¬ 
 can on fire, they will redemaud him until some forthcoming 
 day to safe custody in the Castle of the Santo Angelo; but I 
 trust not until he has lisped a prayer at the tomb of the chief 
 of all the Apostles to have peace restored, and the vengeance 
 of God averted from the heads of the people who have been 
 the dupes of his wicked folly, and of the selfish objects of his 
 ambition. 
 
 Trusting that you will give insertion to this document, 
 which can offend neither the religious or political feelings of 
 any upright man ; and that it may bo the cause of the well- 
 affected their Bishop to take the most effectual method of tes- 
 
24 
 
 tifying their allegiance to him, and to do all they can lo avert 
 the threatened stroke to religion and its interests, 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 The Ecclesiastical commotions in the Capital 
 of Nova Scotia have attempted but in vain to extend their 
 influence with unmitigated fury through a portion of the coun¬ 
 try; and through tho means of endeavouring to excite national 
 prejudices—never to be tolerated in civil society—to obtain 
 Irish partizans in the ungodly and antichristian work of lite¬ 
 rally murdering the character of their pious and venerated 
 Bishop; but the attempt here has proved a failure, and has 
 met with decided and determined opposition in all quarters. 
 It has called forth a manifestation of feeling on the part of the 
 Irish inhabitants with regard to the reputation of the highly 
 injured Bishop, which does honor to themselves, and adds, if 
 such a thing was possible, new lustre to the character of the 
 venerable Prelate. The numerous instances of charity re¬ 
 corded of him, and his universally admitted acts of benevolence 
 to men of all creeds, climes, and colors, would form a chain of 
 eulogy that would do honor not only to the person who has 
 elicited them, but even to the most renowned for sanctity, 
 and whose names are written in the Roman Martyrology and 
 the Lives of the Saints. The poor people exclaim, in their 
 own artless but expressive phraseology— 41 What is the world 
 come to? Is the Bishop to be insulted with impunity?” 
 
 Who, when he married me/’ says one, “and when I told 
 him I was poor, took the marriage money and gave it to my 
 wife, and told her to buy pins for it!” “ Who, when he bap¬ 
 tised my child,” says another, “ put money into the hands of 
 my little children, and would take nothing from myself for his 
 trouble or to pay the expenses of his journey!” “ Who,” says 
 
 r third, 41 when I was cast away, and had nobody to look "to 
 
25 
 
 but the Bishop, who dotlied me and supplied me with means 
 to make out mv friends ; and am t now to be compelled, to 
 see his public character assailed without being able to give 
 him any assistance?” The universal voice here goes to esta¬ 
 blish that if the Bishop was a native of Kamschalka, or of the 
 South Seas, rather than of Scotland, that he is a good man; 
 and that the man, whether Priest or layman (hat would at¬ 
 tack his character would, if he had lived in the days of Christ, 
 Judas Iscariot-like, have betrayed bis Lord and Master. 
 
 Many are under the influence of an opinion that a large por¬ 
 tion of the nominal Catholics of a certain city are not Chris¬ 
 tians at all, or at least what they profess themselves to be. 
 If they are Catholics they must admit that the Bishop inherits 
 the Apostolical powers by lawful succession, and by valid con¬ 
 secration. They must also admit that they are bound to hear 
 him as they would hear Christ himself: Christ himself telling 
 his Apostles, ami in them (on avowed Catholic principles,) to 
 their successors to the end of time—He who heareth you 
 hearetl. me, and he who despiseth you despiseth him that sent 
 you. If any city will not receive you, take off your sandals 
 and shake the dust of them at their doors, and belter for the 
 cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, at the last day, than for these 
 cities ” (See St. Luke, chap. 10, St. Matthew, chap. 10.) 
 And if they declare that on Catholic principles they are not 
 bound to obey him or deny him to be the successor of the 
 Apostles, I positively and unhesitatingly assert, that they are 
 no Catholics, and that a worse, by far, fate awaits them than 
 has befallen Sodom and Gomorrha—reserved only for those 
 who refuse to receive the Apostles and their successors, while 
 a dreadful alternative must await their persecutors and those 
 who load them with abusive and disgraceful epithets. These 
 persons should be induced, if possible, to take up their bibles 
 and read the second chapter, fourth book of Kings, and to 
 reflect on the fate of the two and forty boys who mocked the 
 Prophet Eliseus, and called him “ bald head,” and if their 
 hearts be not as impervious to Christian feeling and as incre¬ 
 dulous of the threatened menaces of heaven as the people be¬ 
 fore the flood, they will repent of the evil they have done, 
 retrace their footsteps, and do penance sitting in sackcloth 
 and ashes. They ought, in the opinion of some of the poor 
 people, to send the Bishop to prison, as the\ did this year in 
 Gibraltar, which they would do if they dare. Like the viper 
 biting the file, they have showed their teeth where they could 
 not bite. “ What a terrible thing it is,” exclaim others, “ that 
 poor people when they g£t a little money do not know how to 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 behave themselves. We have never known the real gentleman 
 at homo, whether Protestant or Catholic, to treat the Clergy 
 as wo see them treated here. Were any low upstart, and 
 who e se would attempt to do it ? to insult a Bishop or Priest 
 in the old country, the first nobleman would avenge the insult; 
 and if not almost ring the nose off the incautious delinquent, 
 make his brawny back and shoulders resound most sweetly to 
 the well-timed music of the horsewhip. It is only here where 
 the Catholics are poor and meanspirited, that such a thing 
 would be attempted cm the exalted character of a Catholic 
 Bishop,—a Prince of the Catholic Church—who would be 
 received with homage and respect in the first court of Europe; 
 and who, were he to visit the Palace of St. James, would be 
 received with marked attention by the Queen of the British 
 Isles and of these Colonies, our Sovereign lady Queen Vic¬ 
 toria. 
 
 The Scotchmen here listen to everything said against their 
 Bishop with characteristic resoluteness and undisturbed minds. 
 They consider him surrounded in a tower of strength, formed 
 of his own many virtues, and impregnable to the assaults of 
 the vilest and bitterest of his enemies ; and sneer with con¬ 
 tempt at the stigma attempted to be cast on their country. 
 Scotchmen never refused to obey a Bishop because an Irish¬ 
 man. They loved and even to this day cherish the memory 
 of Doctor Burke, an Irishman, and the first Bishop of this 
 Colony. And are Scotchmen to be told that Irishmen will not 
 obey a Bishop because he is a Scotchman? <( But we want a 
 Bishop who will preach in English to us; we do not understand 
 Gaelic, and the Bishop generally preaches in that language.” 
 True it is that our Bishop generally addresses bis congrega¬ 
 tion in the Gaelic language, because the generality of the peo¬ 
 ple understand no other, but it is false to say that he dors not 
 preach in English when he perceives only a few are present who 
 understands Gaelic. It is no treason to speak Gaelic; I never 
 heard ol an Act of Parliament against it, while we could point 
 out many, even in the reign of Harry the Eighth, preventing 
 the Irish language to be spoken, under the penalty of £6 13s. 
 4cl, for each word spoken, and the beads ordered to be bid and 
 the word of God preached in English. (See 28 Henry VIII, 
 cap 15.) We rather hear our Bishop preach in our own lan¬ 
 guage than in the language of the taskmasters of any people 
 in the world, no matter how respectable. They object to our 
 Bishop because a Scotchman ! W'hy did they not object to 
 English Bishops before and at the time of the Reformation 
 because they were Englishmen? W r ere not George Brown. 
 
27 
 
 A. B. of Dublin, Edward Staples, Bishop of Meath, Lancaster 
 of Leighlin, and Traverse of Ferns, who conformed at the 
 time of tire Reformation, Englishmen and Irish Bishops ? and 
 we never heard that the Irish murmured at their appointment 
 or refused to obey them. “ But they were appointed through 
 the influence of the Crown with the Papal court, and we dare 
 not refuse to obey them.” Be it so. Irishmen in former 
 days obeyed English Bishops because they dare not do other¬ 
 wise, and now-a-days, because the iron rod of despotism no 
 longer hangs over their heads, refuse to obey a valid, 
 lawfully consecrated Bishop because a Scotchmen; and must 
 Scotchmen, who never admitted any foreign tyrant or poten¬ 
 tate to interfere in the nomination of their Bishops, ol ey Irish 
 Bishops merely because they are Irishmen. They say they 
 will have no Bishop but an Irishman. And why ? because 
 they are morally sure that the Queen will not use her influence 
 with the Papal Court to gel an Englishman appointed to the 
 See—to whom they would submit as their forefathers did be¬ 
 fore, with all willingness and most profound submission. We, 
 Scotchmen, will obey any Bishop appointed to rule over us by 
 the Pope, and obey him as our lawful ecclesiastical superior ; 
 but we would think it hard of his Holiness to remove our 
 ecclesiastical superior because a Scotchman and send us ano¬ 
 ther for no other reason but that he is an Irishman. We 
 are also of opinion that he will not approve of the treatment 
 of our young men of Scottish parentage, studying for the 
 Priesthood, obliged as they were to fly from what should be 
 the sanctuary of Christian charity and learning in the depth of 
 winter, to avoid the fury of an enraged Irish populace, or 
 much admire the Government or Governor of* such an ecclesi¬ 
 astical establishment. 
 
 That the Irish are well inclined to obey the powers that he, 
 look at how they treated last year, at Gibraltar, the Pope’s 
 expostulation with them, and the threatened ecclesiastical 
 censures, and how soon they obeyed the peremptory order of 
 Lord Brougham, and set the captive Bishop free. 
 
 Must Scotchmen, who never learned to bend their necks to 
 the yoke of a stranger in their own country, (and if they did, 
 take up the history of one hundred and nine sovereigns of 
 Scotland, and show me time apd place,) be taught, in a foreign 
 land, to prostrate ir. the dust before the spiiitual despotism 
 of a a people who, according to their own accounts, have pas¬ 
 sed nearly seven hundred years in slavery, and who have only 
 just escaped from worse than Egyptian bondage ? The newly 
 emancipated Irishmen here share with us only equal privilege* 
 
2S 
 
 and equal rights, and should not, in a country like this, where 
 more than half the Catholic population are Scotch or of Scotch 
 extraction, aver that they will not have a Bishop because a 
 Scotchman. Is not a Scotchman, descended from the High¬ 
 land chiefs and clans of Scotland—a race of men unconquered 
 and unconquerable—as good a man as the fearful and timor¬ 
 ous bondsman of any country newly made free, and, slave-iike, 
 exulting in their new-born freedom ? A Scotchman, descended 
 of a race of heroes w ho would rather die than clank the chains 
 of a captive, is not fit to be a Bishop among Irishmen, and 
 where so large a portion of the people are Scotchmen ! And 
 are Irishmen, after ages of persecution md sorrow, and who 
 have been tutored in the school of servitude alone worthy of 
 governing Scotchmen, and of being advanced to episcopal ho¬ 
 nours among them? 
 
 It requires more than ordinary Christian fortitude and pa¬ 
 tience to bear the degrading insult to their character and 
 country. The decision, however, of this important question, 
 involving interests so dear to Scotchmen, will be given in the 
 proper place and by the proper authority—an authority to 
 which Scotchmen bow' with deferential respect, and by whom 
 they are sure their claims to equal honors with their Irish 
 Catholic bretbern will not be disputed. — Cedant anna logee. 
 Were it to be decided by the force of arms, Scotland, from the 
 experience of former times, would have little to fear ; but 
 insults over which she has no control lose much of their aspe¬ 
 rity from being met with Christian patience. — Quod nefas est 
 corrigere palienlia levins Jit . 
 
 It is also expected that if the proverbially enlightened inha¬ 
 bitants of a certain city should send an emissary to the epis¬ 
 copal residence, that on his wild goose chase he will not fill 
 the highways and byeways with his disagreeable cacklings— 
 bespattering and calumniating the Bishop’s character in eve¬ 
 ry direction; and that he will not, on his next excursion, give 
 reason to his friends in the Capital to be convinced of the truth 
 of the old phrase—“ Send a goose to Dover and it will come 
 a goose over.” 
 
 It is true there is no danger of his being tossed in Sancho 
 Panza style, in a blanket, or of his ears being molested in the 
 slightest degee, or of his locks being doffed in a style not per¬ 
 fectly in accordance with the latest London or Parisian 
 fashions ; yet there is every probability of his getting a few 
 raps on the knuckles that will hold him up to popular scorn 
 and derision, and humble him somewhat in his own opinion, 
 notwithstanding the high and exalted notions he entertains of 
 
29 
 
 himself. lie may tell the people of Pictou that the tiara 
 hows most obsequiously to his nod, and that the papistical 
 powers are at his disposal—that before six months he will 
 have a connexion of liis own family seated in the episcopal 
 chair of Nova Scotia, and numberless other such like Tom¬ 
 fooleries. and, it may be, get some people so absurd as to 
 believe him, and to look upon him as a second Jack the Gi¬ 
 ant Killer; but <c sat verbum sapienti still lips betray much 
 wisdom, and if he be not a full bred idiot or an incorrigible 
 fool, he will adopt a different line of conduct from that lately 
 pursued by him, should he ever again revisit this country on a 
 similar excursion. 
 
 But will the Priests of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton be 
 silent on this occasion? Will the Bishop of Prince Edward 
 Island see this aggression on the episcopal character, at the 
 threshold of his door, and not lend his aid to put down the 
 insurgents? Will the Very Reverend the Vicar General 
 remain inactive and not communicate with the Clergy of the 
 Diocese on the alarming crisis of ecclesiastical affairs? Will 
 the venerable Pastor of Dartmouth be not stirring ? or will 
 the learned Parish Priest of Liverpool rest easy on this occa¬ 
 sion ? Will the Reverend Messrs. Meighan of Guysborough, 
 Quinan of Tracadie. Drummond of Sydney, and the M'Keag- 
 ney’s of Cape Breton, refuse to lend their assistance to sup¬ 
 press the threatened encroachments upon Episcopal jurisdic¬ 
 tion, and to quell the religious fury of an enraged Irish popu¬ 
 lace, who endeavour to rescue the crozier from the hands of 
 its lawful occupier, and to tear the mitre from the brows of 
 the venerable prelate who bears it ? Will they not endeavor 
 to extinguish the flame of discord occasioned by a few selfish, 
 ambitious Priests, who seeking the completion of the views 
 of their own aggrandisement, have set the metropolis in an 
 uproar and sowed the seeds of discord far and wide, to the 
 great detriment of their poor Irish countrymen, tobe found in 
 all parts of this country ? It is even a fact that, to exalt him¬ 
 self in the eyes of the public, one of them, at a public enter¬ 
 tainment, impeached the Clergy of Nova Scotia with criminal 
 ignorance of their duties, and kindly volunteered his services 
 to palliate for their deficiencies, from tbe nature of the causes 
 that occasioned them: the newness of the country—the dearth 
 of such eminent men as himself, &c.- But his own ignorance, 
 and bis ignorance of the learning and talents of the clergy of 
 Nova Scotia, was the cause of his becoming, no doubt, their 
 learned and able apologist. This distinguished luminary of 
 the Church of Christ should have know n that there are Priests 
 
30 
 
 here who studied with distinction in Italy, France, Spain, k, 
 and in comparison to whom he would be as a rushlight helping 
 the sun to shine; and common sense and ordinary good man¬ 
 ners should have taught him that to impeach any man with 
 ignorance, not alone the Priesthood of the country, is an out¬ 
 rage on the feelings of the person or persons scarcely to be 
 horn with, while Mr. Pope, in rather forcible language, assures 
 him that 
 
 tc A moral, sensible, and well-bred man, 
 
 Will not offend me, and no other can.” 
 
 The seeming insolence of this imputation has been pardoned 
 by the Clergy of Nova Scotia, in consequence of the goodness 
 of his intentions, and his own universally admitted ignorance. 
 A poor apology indeed to make for him—that he knew no bet¬ 
 ter. A jaundiced eye views every object that presents itself 
 as yellow, and a man presumptuously ignorant looks on all men 
 as ignorant as himself. Indeed the Clergy of Nova Scotia 
 looked upon him as the Gil Perez of h h order, and would 
 gladly give him, on his promotion to merited elevation, the 
 title u Monsieur Le Grand Ignorant—the Prince of Dunder¬ 
 heads!” The Priests here have looked on him and his wor¬ 
 thy confrere, now also at a distance from Nova Scotia, as the 
 two most ignorant ecclessiastics that ever were in this Pro¬ 
 vince; and indeed they would not dispute their claim to the 
 right of inscribing on their foreheads, if they had any apart¬ 
 ments to let in their upper stories, “ Unfurnished lodgings to 
 let—inquire below !” Their conduct alone would he sufficient 
 to convince ten thousand persons that a little Teaming is a 
 dangerous thing.—“ Drink deeply or not at all of the Uys- 
 perian spring.” 
 
 Although the Priests of Nova Scotia are not skilled in 
 Pantomimorism, Ventriloquism, Merryandrewism, or any of 
 those elegant accomplishments that w'ould render them fitting 
 buffoons to amuse a company, still they are r ot ignorant of 
 the duties of their profession, and possess a degree of know¬ 
 ledge by no means despicable, and would prove, to the no 
 small discomfiture of the unwary assailant of their literary 
 reputation, the truth of the w'ords emblazoned on the Arms of 
 Scotland— £ Nemo me impune laccssit The Clergy of Nova 
 Scotia, with their Bishop at their head, yield to no Bishop or 
 body of Clergy in the world of the same number, in deep eru¬ 
 dition and a knowledge of the various polite languages of Eu¬ 
 rope, which many of them speak with ease ami facility; 
 although the lame, the bfiud, cl hoc genus omne of a neighbor¬ 
 ing city may be taught to believe The contrary, and because 
 
3 L 
 
 certain porsons are ignorant of modern languages themselves 
 would gladly cause their acquisition in others to be despised, 
 verifying the old adnge cc Quod ncsciunt spcrnant” To hear 
 some ot them bluster and talk big of themselves, you would 
 think them far superior to the Bishop himself in classical and 
 theological knowledge, and capable of instructing him ; but 
 not one ot them, abstracting from his Episcopal dignity would 
 dare attempt to encounter him. They know that the Bishop 
 is an ocean of theological knowledge, and that, were they to 
 encounter him on the main of moral or speculative theology, 
 they might rest assured of being shipwrecked. On hearing 
 them vaunt of their superior learning the bragadocios spoken 
 of by the Poet must irreluctantly occur to the mind—“ Sti- 
 phelumque, Bromunque, Antimachumque, Helimumquc, Se- 
 curiferumque, &c.” ; and the fable of the little mice in coun¬ 
 cil, who came to the resolution of putting a bell about the cat’s 
 neck, but could gel none to execute the perilous office must 
 be recalled to mind. Many would be anxious to shiver a lance 
 with the Bishop in his absence from the field of literary war¬ 
 fare, but when he is present shew me the man fit to undertake 
 the perilous task, el lu mihi evis magnus Apollo . Indeed, I will 
 confess, that a man capable of meeting the Bishop on such 
 an occasion would be a rara avis in ttrris Jiigrocpte simillima 
 cygno. 
 
 Let the voice of the Clergy and People of Nova Scotia be 
 raised on high—consisting of Irishmen, Scotchmen, French¬ 
 men, Indians, &.c.—and will it not reach Rome as well as that 
 of the venerable Monk of the Order of St. Francis, who, at 
 first a seeming renegade to his own order, has now become a 
 willing aggressor on the episcopal rights of the Prelate under 
 whose sole episcopal jurisdiction he was placed. Cannot the 
 Priests of Nova Scotia send a Representative to Rome, and 
 cause the Papal throne to fulminate her anathemas against 
 the Gibraltar Junta Catholics of this country as it did last 
 year to the real inhabitants of that unfortunate city, and either 
 cut them off entirely, like rotten branches from the apostolic 
 tree, or reduce them to submission? Direful diseases require 
 direful remedies. True it is that the chief agent in this good 
 business is gone away, and his chief deputy is at a distance 
 from the Province, but has not the dignity of the Priesthood 
 and Episcopacy been infringed on, and have not worthless 
 laymen attempted to sieze the reins of ecclesiastical govern¬ 
 ment? Let the Bishop, the Vicar General, and the elite of the 
 Clergy meet and adopt measures to chase from our shores the 
 wicked fiend that this year has done so much damage in the 
 
32 
 
 Church, and to prevent him of ever returning here. Let the 
 illustrious Lord Falkland be consulted. He knows the worth, 
 honour and integrity of our good Bishop; and should he com¬ 
 municate with the Home Department, the Ministry, through 
 the influence of the Hanoverian Ambassador at Rome, could 
 easily put an end to these proceedings,—which seem as if de¬ 
 termined to take their rounds in the British Colonies, and har- 
 rass and disgrace the well-affected members of the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 In all probability, the prime agent in all these evils has got 
 a good pandying by this time from the Archbishop of Dublin 
 for the mannerlle has learned his last lesson : and that he has 
 got a new one, with severe injunctions to learn it better than 
 (he last, &c. No doubt he has been advised by him to go to 
 Rome and shut himself up for the rest of his days in a convent, 
 and to do penance for all the scandal he has brought on the 
 Church of Nova Scotia. And if he ha3 been counselled to 
 return to Nova Scotia, it must have been to make reparation 
 for the disedification he has given. On these and no other 
 conditions has he been recommended to go to Rome, or to re¬ 
 visit Nova Scotia ; and should he refuse to do so, his refusal 
 may be attended with difficulties he little anticipates. If he 
 was not as ignorant of Church discipline and the canons of the 
 Church as the dupes of his delusion, he would have known that 
 no private Priest or people, without the consent of the Bishop 
 could divide a Parish, and that the Bishop, not the people, has 
 the right of establishing parishes and appointing Parish Priests. 
 If a violation of canon laws and an assault on a Bishop’s cha¬ 
 racter,—(which, if he had been of noble extraction, and had 
 inflicted on temporal majesty, would cause a certain block to 
 be laid upon a block)—entitle him to respect at Rome,—and 
 if a complaint against his Bishop be considered a suitable New 
 Year’s gift to his Holiness, there is no doubt of his being pre¬ 
 sented with a Caidinal’s list, and invested with “ the purple.” 
 Should these high claims to distinguished honors at Rome 
 meet with a different reception there, (awful, dreadful 
 thought ! !) there is not the smallest shadow of probability 
 that we will ever see him more in this country, and that in a 
 short time his memory shall perish from among us. 
 
 His ignorance of bis duties as a Priest, and of the very out¬ 
 lines of canon law, as well as false friends, is the very cause 
 why he may exclaim now, and at a more distant period of 
 time, 11 O save me from my friends, and I will protect myself 
 from my enemies. 
 
 Thai the Gibraltar infection, now raging in the Capital, 
 
33 
 
 may not spread its baneful influence to the small towns, where 
 some bad subjects for such an epidemic are to be found, being 
 already not of over-strong constitutions, is the sincere arui 
 heartfelt wish of 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 The good effects of the letters inserted in your 
 valuable public Journal have been sensibly felt here, and have 
 elicited sentiments of gratitude from the poor Irish laborers 
 of the liveliest and most enthusiastic description, which occa¬ 
 sion them to look on you, from the part you have taken in 
 making known their sentiments with regard to Scotchmen, as 
 one of their kindest and best benefactors. Many of them r 
 after being driven from the land of their birth by heartless 
 and grasping landlords and grinding agents of their own religi¬ 
 ous communion, have found here kind and indulgent employ¬ 
 ers, either Scotchmen by birth, or of Scottish extraction. In 
 fact all the Irish Catholics in Colchester and Cumberland 
 derive their means of support from Scotch employers ; and 
 heartless must not these people be, and free from every senti¬ 
 ment of generous sensibility for their countrymen in this part 
 of the country, who would endeavour to excite prejudices in 
 their minds against them—to view them on apparently well- 
 founded grounds of suspicion. It is a well attested fact, 
 that not only Scotchmen but people of all countries look 
 on the Irish people as the most attached to the ancient faith, 
 its pastors and its institutions. What then must be their feel¬ 
 ings, when they see them (notwithstanding the almost insur¬ 
 mountable barriers that religious feeling throw in the way,) 
 evincing^national prejudices of the darkest hue, and rejecting 
 one of the most blameless of men, the very Bishop, because a 
 Scotchman. It is equally true that an attempt has been made 
 to impress the Scotchman with a conviction, that a spirit of 
 malevolence and of anti-Scotch hatred exists in the minds of 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 Irishmen. But let it go forth to the world that these men 
 have nothing to do with Scotchmen, and who, wishing to satisfy 
 their anti-christian hate and rancour to their Bishop and law¬ 
 ful ecclesiastical superior, care not what wrongs they may 
 inflict on their poor countrymen in different parts of the Pro¬ 
 vince, and cause them to be viewed with diffidence and dis¬ 
 trust by their once good and indulgent masters. 
 
 “ But we, great Irish folk of the metropolis, want to have 
 nothing to do with Scotchmen in ecclesiastical or temporal 
 matters.” Neither do we, Scotchmen, want to have anything 
 to do with you, and whether you choose to quit the Catholic 
 Church and Province of Nova Scotia, or to remain in them, 
 are matters of perfect indifference to us. “ But are not we, 
 Irishmen, far superior to Scotchmen ?” If bending your necks 
 for centuries with the tamest servility to the yoke of a stran¬ 
 ger, makes you superior to Scotchmen, you are vastly their 
 superior. And if you have any doubt on this head, why do 
 you so oftentimes at your public and festive meetings thus 
 express yourselves— 
 
 “ Other nations have fallen, but thou art still young, 
 
 'Thy star is but rising whilst others have set— 
 
 Tho’ the darkness ol slavery hath hung round thee iong^ 
 
 The full moon ol* freedom shall shine o’er thee yet. 
 
 If an avowal made by the greatest of Ireland’s patriots, that 
 the Irish at home, from the wretchedness of their condition, 
 are entitled to no better name than white slaves—worse used 
 than the black slaves of Demerara—be a proof that Irishmen 
 are superior to Scotchmen, then indeed Irishmen are vastly 
 superior to Scotchmen; for no Scotchman was ever known to 
 call his countrymen white slaves. In these days they would 
 as soon as in the days of the immortal Wallace welcome their 
 sons to a gory bed or victory, and were a foreign foe to invade 
 them to-morrow exclaim—in language equally blood-thrilling 
 and enthusiastic as in former days— 
 
 t( Now’s the day and now’s the hour, 
 
 Now the front of battle lower, 
 
 See approach proud Edward’s power, 
 
 For us death or victory!” 
 
 What Scotchman ever addressed his countrymen in lan¬ 
 guage breathing servitude like unto this— 
 
 —- -“ Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not, 
 
 Who would be tree, himself must strike the blow?” 
 
 Never! never ! Such epithets would fill the breasts of 
 
Scotchmen with abhorrence, and cause them to reject them 
 with disgust. Such courage-inspiring "strains as these they 
 tike to hear tingling in their eats— 
 
 “ By oppression’s woes and pains, 
 
 By our sons in 6ervile chains, 
 
 We will drain out* dearest veins. 
 
 But they shall be free!” 
 
 Scotchmen are never known to ask did Saint Paul carry ft 
 loaded pistol with him when he went to preach the gospel, or 
 did he bring a good cargo of swandrops and gunpowder to 
 exact remuneration from those who would not receive hU 
 instructions. Scotchmen never wept over the blood ot the 
 widow’s son, slain in tithe battle. They glory and exult in 
 the blood spilled in iheTvallevs and mountains of Scotland in 
 resisting the odious impost of tithes ; and that although at 
 the lime of the Reformation the great majority of the people 
 embraced a voluntary change in their religious sentiments, 
 no “ pike or gun religion'” in the language of Butler’s 
 Hudibras y was enforced upon them. The women of Scotland 
 would nut allow it, much fes> the men of Scotland; and of this 
 truth Janet Geddes is an illustrious instance : tor when the 
 Church of England Dean ascended the pulpit to preach, in the 
 Church of St. Giles, Edinburgh, A. D 1637, she look up her 
 stool and flung it at him, exclaiming —*' \S hat the de’il, does 
 the fause loo*think to say his black Mass at my lug ?” Her 
 conduct threw the congregation into such contusion that with 
 difficulty the Chancellor and Magistrates could restore peace. 
 Stones were thrown at the windows from without, and the 
 window sashes broken in, so that with great difficulty the Bi¬ 
 shop and Dean escaped popular vengeance. The women, 
 then, of Scotland, to say nothing of the men, would not bear 
 with what Irishmen have borne, do hear, and must bear for a 
 long period yet to come. Scotchmen ncv*r lost voluntarily 
 their independent monarchy; and if King James ^ I of Scot¬ 
 land had not united in his person a legitimate claim to the 
 Crowns of England and Scotland, King Fergus would still 
 have a successor to the throne of Scotland, and Scotland would 
 have been an independent kingdom. Irishmen, of slavish 
 propensities, do welljwlien they speak ill of Scotchmen, to do 
 so at a "reat distance from where they reside, lest the inno- 
 mitable*Liou of Scotch independence and freedom might give 
 a roar that! would make them shake to their centres and 
 frighten them, with dangerous precipitation, into their holes 
 
/ 
 
 3G 
 
 and lurking places. At least Scotchmen would advise them, 
 that when they speak ill of them to do it behind their backs; 
 and should they wish to strip Scotch students of their ecclesi¬ 
 astical dresses, to be at least fifty to one Scotchman, and thus 
 afford them an opportunity, when they speak of the perfidy 
 and baseness of Irishmen, to exclaim—‘ J The greater the 
 cowards, the crueler the devils !” 
 
 To what good purpose can this conduct of the Squirearchy 
 tend — this endeavour to excite national prejudices ? In the 
 city it may enable certain persons to throw off some of their 
 bile and malice — in venting their rage on the heads oi the Bi¬ 
 shop and inoffending people of his county, and bring ruin and 
 destruction to the homes of many of the poor Irish in the coun¬ 
 try parts — to sever the links of friendship between them and 
 their Scotch neighbours— create family dissensions where 
 intermarriages between Scotch and Irish exist, See. Sac. 
 
 “ But it is love for religion that causes us to oppose our 
 Bishop.—We think the Bishop should reside in the capital of 
 the Province—the capital of the Province should be the seat 
 of the Episcopal See.’’ 
 
 Love of Religion! Bah! What Jove of Religion could 
 men have who abuse and load with disgraceful epithets, the 
 undoubted successor of the apostles in this diocese? We are 
 too well aware of what the love of religion has done in bye- 
 gone days to pay any attention to these hypocritical and fana¬ 
 tical assertions. The metropolis of this country is not the 
 Bishop’s See, and if it be, shew me papal authority for it. 
 Prescription in the old country is against it. Are not the 
 chiefSees of France, England, Ireland and Scotland — Lyons, 
 Canterbury, Armagh, and St. Andrews?—which are not the 
 metropolises of the respective kingdoms just named. 
 
 “ But we wish the Bishop to reside in the metropolis, and 
 we are angry at him that he does not.” 
 
 But do your wishes constitute a canon law to bind the Bi¬ 
 shop, and would not the least manifestation of anger or resent¬ 
 ment justify the Bishop to make use of the Gospel liberty with 
 which the* Church has invested him in the words of Christ, 
 “ When they persecute (that is, insult or slight) you in one city, 
 fly into another.” ? The Bishop could, if he pleased, reside 
 in any part of the Diocese he thought proper, and hold the 
 Parish ot the Metropolis- — appoint to it an Administrator as 
 the Bishops in Ireland do to the iMansal Parishes — dissolve 
 the Committee on the authority of the Pope’s Brief to the 
 Right Rev. Doctor Hughes, and live solely on the voluntary 
 oblations of the Parish—a decision in which a great 'majority 
 
37 
 
 of the people would most gladly cooperate. As Bishop he is 
 not bound to discharge the duties of a Parochial Clergyman; 
 he could, in his private chapel officiate, and never, save on the 
 occasion of administering the sacrament of Confirmation, 
 appear in the public Church. And this he could do, although 
 he wishes to do otherwise and acts the part of a most laborious 
 Parish Priest, in perfect accordance with the canons of the 
 Church, and the received usages of the Catholic Church in 
 Catholic countries. 
 
 “ But who would manage the funds of the Church?—Who 
 would support the Priests ?” 
 
 Who supported the Church and its Priests in the hil s and 
 mountains of Ireland, when Mass was obliged to be celebrated 
 before the rising of the sun r—The Great GOD, who promises 
 to be with the Church until the end of time, and the piety 
 and goodness of the well affected Catholics. Let the Priests 
 then throw themselves on the bounty of the people—let volun¬ 
 tary collections be made at the Chapel-doors on Sundays—let 
 the Pews be removed from the body of the Church, and time 
 will tell whether the people are willing to do their duty or not, 
 and to support the Church and its Pastors in honorable inde¬ 
 pendence. 
 
 “ But the Grandees will never agree to that arrangement; 
 they will desert the Church, and go where they will meet with 
 respect and distinction worthy of their elevated rank and dig¬ 
 nity.” 
 
 If they hang by such tender ligaments to the branch of the 
 Apostolical Tree, in my opinion the sooner they drop off the 
 better. If they are kmd and charitable to the poor, and 
 benevolent to their pastors, way will be made for them, and a 
 place of distinction given them, as in the old country. If not 
 they will be permitted to take their rank among the poor peo¬ 
 ple ; and should they quit the Church, the Church will have 
 do reason for regret, although the pastors should not be 
 inclined to exclaim, in the language of the angry parent at the 
 departure of his unruly son—“ Joy be with you,” Stc. 
 
 It will not appear extraordinary that a few illiterate and 
 presuming characters should be found in country towns and 
 villages, who profess themselves to be distinct species of Ca¬ 
 tholics from those found in the old country—where the rich 
 and poor equally respect and venerate the Priestly character, 
 and who aver that they are another description of Catholics 
 altogether, who set the authority of the Priest, and the laws 
 of God and of his Church at defiance, and who, if they are 
 not allowed to intermeddle with ecclesiastical matters and do 
 
as they please, they will quit the Church altogether. Neither 
 will it appear wonderful that such characters should, for 
 worldly interest, traffic with the principles of their faith, and 
 endeavour to revive the ancient order of Priest-catchers— 
 long grown into disuse in Ireland, and suppressed by Judge 
 Mansfield about the year 1765 in England.—The Honorable 
 and Right Rev. Doctor Talbot, coadjutor Bishop to Doctor 
 Chaloner, Bishop of Debra, and grand uncle to the present 
 Lord Shrewsbury, being the last Priest or Bishop tried for 
 celebrating; Mass in England. The lowness of their birth and 
 the rudeness of their education, must plead their best apology 
 when they have the audacity to substitute their own whims 
 and cap!ices on the most important subjects of ecclesiastical 
 discipline, in place of the sage and wise decrees of the Church. 
 That these things should happen, and that such characters 
 should be found in remote settlements from the capital of the 
 Province, where Catholicism has only of late made its appear¬ 
 ance, is by no means surprising ; such occurrences will never 
 excite ideas of wonder or astonishment in the minds of men 
 versed with the haughty pride of ignorant, self-sufficient per¬ 
 sons, who, when they get up a little in the world are, in their 
 own estimation, on the summit of the wheel of earthly great¬ 
 ness ; but that in a town which boasts of a spirit of Catholic¬ 
 ism, and a regard for the religious observances of the Church, 
 should be found men to dispute the titles of a validly ordained 
 Bishop, and successor of the Apostles, as their lawful superior, 
 is truly astonishing. A City which can boast of an uninter¬ 
 rupted ministry of Catholic Priests during the last 60 years, 
 at least, and which has of late received the benefit of light 
 sufficient to enlighten all the nations of the earth that hitherto 
 sat in darkness and the shadow of death—lights calculated to 
 enlighten every man that cometh into this world. No doubt 
 they have told the people, in the words of St. Ambrose, that 
 “ Emperors have no power to rule in the Church of God ; and 
 that an Emperor belongs to the Church but is not head of 
 the Church. Palaces belong to Emperors, Churches to the 
 Priesthood,” but to no effect. No doubt the conduct of St. 
 Ambrose has been eften held up to their view, when he told 
 the Emperor Theodosius not to attempt to cross the threshold 
 ol the Church, his hands stained with blood *, and the answer 
 of the Emperor has been also frequently repeated— u St. 
 Paul was a sinner, and afterwards became a vessel of election.” 
 I o which St. Ambrose teplied, <( As you imitated St. Paul 
 in committing sin, so also imitate him in doing penance.” No 
 doubt they have been told that St. Ambrose would not allow 
 
39 
 
 the Emperor,on his doing penance, to set inside the railing,say¬ 
 ing (hat the people made Emperors but not Priests, while he 
 gave him a place ol precedency outside the railing. They have 
 been told also, no douhf, that so far was the Emperor from 
 being otlended with St. Ambrose, that when he went to Con¬ 
 stantinople the Patriarch Nectarius requested of him to be 
 seated inside the rails, which mark of attention, he declined, 
 saying, “ St. Ambrose has taught me the difference between a 
 Bishop and an Emperor, while Nectarius teaches me the 
 difference between a Bishop and a Bishop.” We also find 
 Theodosius, the younger, and Valentinien, (See Code Theo- 
 dosian, and end of the Acts of the Council of Ephesus,) thus 
 express themselves—“ W e. whose duty it is to carry the sword 
 and to walk surrounded by armed men, lay aside our aims on 
 entering the temple of God. 'A e throw aside our diadems, 
 the signs of imperial dignity, and having made our offering at 
 the altar, we again return to our place among the people.” 
 At the Council of Nice, Constantine the Great would not be 
 seated until all the Bishops had first sat dowrn, and until ordered 
 by them, from motives of respect towards them. Charle¬ 
 magne, to render the Pope and his successors independent, 
 conferred upon them the ecclesiastical stales they now pos¬ 
 sess; while King Cloris of France raised the Bishops to the 
 highest pitch of earthly greatness, to add weight to their 
 decisions on ecclesiastical matters. And this laudable.custom 
 we see adopted at a later period, and still retained in the 
 greatest countries in the world. The submission and respect 
 of Charles V., Emperor of Germany, to the law s of the church 
 are too well known to be mentioned here. He died, wearing 
 the habit of an humble monk, in a convent of the Estrama- 
 dures in Spain. Louis NIY like another Theodosius, allowed 
 himself to be reproved for his unchristianlike excesses by tho 
 Christian preacher, and when the guards drew their swords to 
 cut him in pieces, the monarch exclaimed, “ Monsieur PAbbe 
 Bourdaloue has done his duty, let us do ours.” 
 
 Emperors and Kings, then have been taught to obey the 
 Bishops and preachers of the Catholic Church, and not to rise 
 up against their authority, much less have they attempted to 
 name Parish Priests or to divide Parishes, or in any respect 
 to usurp their holy offices. Even in our days, two remarkable 
 instances in point have occurred. — When the Bourbon family 
 was restored to the throne of France, the Parish Priest of St. 
 Germain PAuxerrois, in which stands the Palace of the Tuil- 
 leries, was a great favorite of Buonaparte’s ; the Family wish¬ 
 ed him to be removed, and to have Monsieur PAbbe Manning, 
 
40 
 
 who attended the Queen Maria Antoinette the night before 
 her execution, and administered to her the last rights of the 
 church, but they did not compel him to resign the Parish; they 
 first got his consent, then that of the Archbishop, who trans¬ 
 ferred him to the Parish of Thomas d’Acquin, where he 
 remained until he was advanced to the bench of Bishops. 
 The other instance regards Cardinal Fesch, Archbishop of 
 Lyons, liuonapaite’s uncle—he was obliged to leave France, 
 with all his family, at the time of the Reformation, but did he 
 resign his arbishoprick? No, be did not. He kept it until his 
 death, which occured about two years ago ;—oftentimes 
 repeating, during his exile, that no power on earth could de- 
 piive him of his Archbishoprick, and that humble as he was, 
 he expected at a future period, to occupy an humble place 
 under the thrones of St. Photinus and said Ireneus, in the 
 kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 If, then, Kings and Emperors could not—would not—be 
 allowed to usurp Episcopal functions, to divide parishes, ap¬ 
 point Parish Priests, or remove Bishops or Archbishops, how' 
 can it be supposed that the poor people of Nova Scotia could 
 effect it? 
 
 “ But we wish to have an Irish Bishop, and we have been 
 told that, if we apply at the Court of Rome we shall get one. 
 We have also been told thatan Irish Student is more respected 
 at Rome, than a Scotch Priest or even Bishop.” 
 
 No doubt but you have been told so; but your informant 
 must have been either grossly deceived himself, or he w ished 
 to deceive you. Is it not the greatest mark of favor that the 
 court of Rome can confer on the particular church of any 
 country to raise any of its members to the dignity of Cardi¬ 
 nals? Did you ever hear of an Irish Cardinal? I am sure 
 you never did ; although you have heard of Pope Adrian, an 
 Englishman ; of Cardinals Woolsey, Fisher, Pole, Howard, 
 Weld, &c. You have also heard of Cardinal David Beaton, 
 Archbishop o! St. Andrews, and also of the late Cardinal 
 York, nephew to Queen Ann, also a Scotchman by descent. 
 'When such marks of favor as these just mentioned shall be 
 conferred on Irishmen, then and then only will I consider them 
 to be esteemed at Home as much and more than Scotchmen. 
 It is also publicly reported, but not believed by the most cre¬ 
 dulous Irishman, that the interest of the Hierarchy of the 
 United States has been solicited for the purpose of dethroning 
 our Venerable Bishop, and that the people of a certain city, 
 like King Dermod M‘Murragh of old, had recourse to Foreign 
 powers to satisfy their spirit of malice towards the Bishop, 
 
41 
 
 and with Dermod kPMurragb-likc pride, who in procuring his 
 own vassalage secured that of his country also, boast that they 
 wish to subject themselves and the Priests and people of this 
 Diocese to a foreign ecclesiastical authority. If such things 
 be true, Irishmen cannot exclaim with (he renowned Bayard, 
 rt Tout cst perdue sauf Vhonnenr.” But are these the thoughts 
 that should occupy the minds of Irishmen in a foreign country ] 
 The groans of the gibbets of ’98, < f the pitched caps, of the 
 picketlings, and of the Riding-house, still jingling in their ears 
 the scenes of poor wretches sent out to the country to be 
 executed still fresh in their view. Is this the lime I ask— 
 Ireland struggling for Independence and her own legislative 
 government—for Irishmen to concentrate all their forces in 
 attacking a pious and holy Bishop of the Catholic Church. 
 For although the words of the poet who wrote an appropriate 
 incription to be inscribed on a silver gift to be presented to 
 O'Connell, might induce you to think that Ireland is free, she 
 is far from it— 
 
 f( Through centuries of penalties and pains 
 One series—still the Irishman in chains, 
 
 Himself prescribed, his wife, his child, his sire, 
 
 A crime his locks, his garb, his tongue, his lyre, 
 O’Connell comes: his chains fall off— he’s free— 
 
 And millions shout ‘ f O’Connell!—Liberty !” 
 
 Long may you exert your generous mind, 
 
 To serve England, Ireland—all mankind.” 
 
 The energies of the people should be directed to a nobler 
 object than that of persecuting a Bishop, which cause all the 
 friends of Ireland to blush, and all good men to cry “ Shame.” 
 
 Trusting that you will pub ish these few lines, and make it 
 known to the world that if some Iri*h Catholics in Nova Sco¬ 
 tia are traitors to their church and Bishop, thousands will be 
 found to execrate the horrid deed. 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 It is universally admitted by all persons acquaint¬ 
 ed with the character of Irishmen, that there is nothing they 
 glory so much in as having preserved their ancient faith, and 
 in having received it without spilling a drop of Christian blood; 
 the joy that beams on the countenance of every Irishman on 
 the Anniversary of their Patron Saint and Apostle Saint Pa¬ 
 trick, and the throbs of gladness with which their souls seem 
 to be enraptured while they hear his praises proclaimed and 
 the annals of their faith recorded from the pulpit of God, more 
 than sufficiently authenticates this fact. What grief, then, 
 must it not occasion to all Irishmen true to their religion and 
 country to witness the foul deeds lately carried on in Gibral¬ 
 tar, in New York, and lastly in the capital of Nova Scotia? 
 In Gibraltar last year the descendants of Irishmen and 
 Irishmen imprisoned their sainted Bishop Hughes because 
 he would not commit the horrid crime of simony, and 
 make exorbitant demands for the administration of the sacra¬ 
 ments, in accordance with their views; while Irishmen and 
 their descendants are at this moment doing all they can to 
 villify and injure the character of the learned and most zea¬ 
 lous coadjutor Bishop of New York, because he insists that 
 the poor Irish children should get a Catholic education free 
 from sectarian influence. The good inhabitants of the capi¬ 
 tal of Nova Scotia, Irish or of Irish extraction, are not idle 
 spectators of their conduct, and seem to rival them in acts of 
 atrocity to their venerable and venerated Bishop. From Gib¬ 
 raltar Doctor Hughes states, that he is amply compensated 
 for the horrors of imprisonment by the increased affection and 
 attachment of the numerous well-disposed portion of his flock. 
 Doctor Hughes, of New York, is also amply compensated for 
 the insults and disgrace thought to be heaped upon him by 
 certain leaders of the Catholic body by the following Resolu¬ 
 tions passed at Tammany Hall about the commencement of 
 last month: — 
 
 i{ Resolved, That those misguided men who basely deserted 
 the sacred cause of humanity, education and religion—who 
 W'ere blindly led to barter their conscience for party or for 
 place—to sacrifice the dearest interests of their ill-fated off¬ 
 spring at the dictatalion of wily and worthless demagogues, 
 who proved so utterly recreant, in a matter partly spiritual, to 
 those solemn obligations ever subsisting between a Pastor and 
 his flock—are deserving of our utmost contempt.” 
 
 “ Resolved , That viewing with inexpressible disgust the 
 outrageous demeanor, the insolent vituperation, the coarse and 
 
43 
 
 vulgar tone of familiarity regarding persons and things sacred 
 adopted by those unworthy individuals who have so far 
 degraded themselves as Irishmen, disgraced themselves as 
 Catholics, and dishonored themselves as Freemen—by parti¬ 
 cipating in or otherwise sanctioning the infamous Meeting 
 convened at Tammany Hall, 4 To rebuke censure and denounce 
 the conduct ’ of our reverend Bishop — we hereby solemnly 
 pronounce them deserving to be stigmatized with our sternest 
 reproba t ion 
 
 The Bishop of Nova Scotia alone is the only Bishop left 
 wittxHit the solace of having to say that even a small portion 
 of the people of a certain city have become more attached to 
 him in consequence of the storm of revolt raised against him, 
 and that although many had rebelled against his episcopal 
 authority numbers were found most cheerfully to submit to it, 
 and in the strongest and most forcible manner that language 
 admits of, to reprobate and condemn the conduct of those 
 who had the sacriligeous audacity to outrage or insult it. 
 Doctor Hughes, of Gibraltar, is well known at Rome as the 
 most distinguished preacher of his day in Dublin, and as an 
 eminent Professor of Philosophy and Theology in that City. 
 Doctor Hughes, of New York, is also known at Rome as the 
 most distinguished controvertist of the Church of the United 
 States—his controversy with Doctor Breckenridge having 
 been translated into Italian and presented to the Pope. Doc¬ 
 tor Fraser is not only universally admitted the best Gaelic 
 -scholar and preacher in that language now’ living, but was also 
 a Professor of Theology in Spain, rvhere the present Archbi¬ 
 shop of Dublin received his ecclesiastical education*—as well 
 as the late lamented Primate of all Ireland, Doctor Curtis, 
 and the never-to-be-forgotten Doctor Doyle—and is, no doubt, 
 much better known at the Papal Court than some people 
 think. What a triumph will it not be to him, to have his 
 name associated with these two inestimable men not only 
 before the Pope at Rome and the Consistory of Cardinals but 
 before the entire Catholic world, in endeavouring to suppress 
 the inroads of popular aggression on the episcopal authority, 
 and iii suppressing the daring outrages of the ringleaders of an 
 enraged and impious populace, who have the effrontery to 
 nickname themselves Catholics arid Irishmen. It would not 
 be unworthy the most sainted Prelate that ever lived to have 
 his name handed down to posterity associated with the names 
 of the venerable martyrs, Primate Plunkett < f Ireland, and 
 Cardinal Fisher of England; neither will it be considered by 
 Doctor Fras’er a small tribute of respect to bis memory, to 
 
44 
 
 have his name associated with the Bishops Hughes of Gibral¬ 
 tar and New York, in combatting the attacks made upon their 
 sacred characters by men the most infamous of the human 
 race, and in supposing with them the rights and privileges of 
 the Church of God. The Priests of Nova Scotia, and thou¬ 
 sands of its inhabitants, are certain that sooner than allow any 
 such encroachment or infringement. Doctor Fraser, like ano¬ 
 ther Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, would suf¬ 
 fer martyrdom, and permit his brains to be dashed out sooner 
 than allow it. 
 
 Irishmen delight in reading the ecclesiastical historyof their 
 county, and tracing up every circumstance connected with it 
 to the days of St. Patrick. It gives them particular delight 
 to read the lives of the first Bishops of the different Sees, and 
 the uninterrupted succession of Bishops in each See not only 
 to the coming of the English, A. D., 1171, but also from that 
 period to the time of the Reformation, to be found in Ware’s 
 and Harris’s Lives of the Bishops of the Jrish Church. But of 
 all things, they take a particular interest in the history of the 
 Irish Church from the period of the Reformation to the pre¬ 
 sent daj T . So far from being offended with meeting the name 
 of an Italian Primate of Ireland, or a French or Spanish Arch¬ 
 bishop of Dublin in the history of Ireland, they feel particu¬ 
 larly pleased at its recurrence, and evince the greatest anxiety, 
 not only to know the particular circumstances of his life, but 
 what cause occasioned him to be appointed to an Irish Bishop- 
 rick. They gladly throw a curtain over the conduct of Doc¬ 
 tor George Brown, the first reformed Archbishop of Dublin, 
 of Doctor Hugh Curwin, his successor, who also reformed in 
 the days of Queen Elizabeth, and their three associates, Doc¬ 
 tors Edward Staples of Meath, Lancaster of Leighlin, and 
 Traverse of Ferns ; and while they thank God that they were 
 not Irishmen by birth, seem more anxious to drop a tear over 
 their lamented fall than to censure their conduct. It gives 
 them peculiar but melancholy delight to read the lives of Der- 
 mot M'Hurly, Archbishop of Cashel, cruelly martyred for not 
 resigning his archiepiscopal jurisdiction and receiving it from 
 Queen Elizabeth, of Doctors Kelly and of Doran, one Bishop 
 of Killalla, the other of Down and Connor, who suffered most 
 cruel deaths with all the constancy of martyrs for the same 
 cause. The long confinement of the Most Reverend Doctor 
 M‘Creagh, Primate of aMjlreland, is read with wonder and as¬ 
 tonishment.—It is recorded of him that after suffering twenty 
 years imprisonment in the Tower of London, for the same 
 cause, he was subsequently poisoned ;—while the celebrated 
 
Irish ecclesiastical Historian, Doctor Burke, in his Hibernia 
 Dominicanct ) tells us that during Queen Elizebeth’s reign, four¬ 
 teen Irish Bishops died in exile—some after having been 
 dreadfully tortured on the rack before they left the country. 
 Irishmen read with melancholy pleasure the conversation of 
 King James the first, of England with Doctor Andrew Knox, 
 first Bishop of the Orkney Islands, and afterwards Bishop of 
 Raphoe,— the Bishop requests of King James permission to 
 exercise greater rigour than that hitherto used even in the 
 days of Queen Elizabeth, and assures him that it will have its 
 effect in reforming the Irish people ; to which the King replied, 
 “ My Knox, the task is a most difficult one—if it were not, 
 how is it that lor seventy years England has laboured in vain 
 to attain that end ? However, try what you can do, and 
 believe me I shall remain your friend.” 
 
 Two things are now certain.—that England, until the days 
 of King James, could do nothing in reforming Ireland; and it 
 is also certain that Doctor Knox did not succeed in attaining 
 the object of his mission. During the latter end of the reign 
 of King James the first and at the commencement of I he reign 
 of Charles the first all the Irish S^es are filled up. The Arch¬ 
 bishops of Ireland in the days of King Charles the First were 
 Doctor Hugh O’Reilly, Primate of Ireland, and Archbishop 
 of Ardmagh, Doctor Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, 
 Doctor Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, and Doctor 
 Boetius M‘Egan, Archbishop of Tuam. During the wars of 
 Cromwell eleven Bishops are said to be martyied. Doctor 
 Matthews, the learned Bishop of Clogher, was hanged with 
 the reins of Ciomweli’s horse—no rope or halter being conve¬ 
 nient, and its being considered a work of the greatest impor¬ 
 tance to be on the spot put into execution. During the reign 
 of Charles the Second all the Sees are again filled up. Char¬ 
 les the Second bad the misfortune to sign the death-warrant 
 of Doctor Oliver Plunkett, Primate of all Ireland, and never 
 forgave himself. During the reign of King James the Second 
 it is needless to say that Ireland was Catholic. After the 
 Battle of the Boyne, 1790, the Bishops were obliged for a 
 time to betake themselves to the locis refugii , or to quit the 
 kingdom; while in the year of our Lord 1715 we find almost 
 almost all the Dioceses again supplied with Bishops, as at the 
 present day. 
 
 It is then evident that the Irish people, on the authority of 
 King James, did not reform the first seventy years. The 
 immense sums raised by Charles the First and Charles the 
 Second by way of subsidies, generally termed “ recusant 
 
46 
 
 money,” prove that they did not abandon the ancient faith 
 during the seventeenth century. (See Doctor Curry’s History 
 of the IVcirs of Ireland , Piowden’s History of Ireland } &c. &c.) 
 And I think a man would have strong faith who would visit 
 Ireland and see her Catholic millions, and say she abandoned 
 it during the last century. The old Irish people whom we saw 
 ourselves, took delight in telling us how Doctor Plunkett, 
 Bishop of Ardah, perished of hunger in the woods; how Dr. 
 Gahagan, Bishop of Kildare, lived in the huts of the poor 
 cottagers ; how Ins predecessor, Doctor Leverous, of the same 
 diocese, taught school, and passed for a poor schoolmaster.— 
 It was he, on the authority of Harris, who preserved the then 
 only existing heir of the now Duke of Leinster family, six of 
 his uncles having been executed. With delight our grand¬ 
 parents, now no more, and who have died since the commence¬ 
 ment of this century, have showed us the rocks and fields in 
 which they heard mass before the rising sun in their early 
 days, and told us of the good Protestant families who protected 
 the Priests, and who used to aid in disguising them. Of the 
 many little pranks they paid off when a Priest-catcher made 
 his # appearance in the country. Although only the same 
 price was set on the head of a Piiest and the head of a wolf 
 by law, large sums were given for their arrest. Sometimes 
 the good Protestants would ask the Priest-catcher how much 
 would he give them for the body of a Priest, and they would 
 shew him where there was one, and, when they got the money, 
 they brought him to the grave where one or more Priests 
 were interred; and bow*, if he asked to get his money back, 
 threatened to cudgel him with a good stick or otherwise abuse 
 him. Although these good old stories lost all the grace* of 
 novelty, being so oftentimes told by talkative old age, they 
 did not fail to produce excellent effects—an intercourse of 
 good fellowship between the Catholics and the descendants of 
 these Protestants who in the days of persecution protected 
 their clergy. It also inspired that love for the ancient religion 
 which so manifestly displayed itself on a late occasion at Dub¬ 
 lin,—when a solemn High Mass was ehaunted in the Cathe¬ 
 dral Church of Dublin, to give glory to God for the triumph of 
 Liberal principles in the election of a Catholic Lord Mayor— 
 the first, it might be said since the Reformation. On this 
 occasion his Grace the Archbishop assisted in splendid Ponti¬ 
 ficals and ehaunted the Gospel; while Doctor Miley pronounced 
 a glowing eulogium on the inviolable attachment of the Irish 
 to the ancient faith under the severest trials and most dreadful 
 persecutions recorded in history since the days of Nero Cali- 
 
47 
 
 gula or Vespasian ; while if anything could interrupt their feel¬ 
 ings,it was the conduct of Irishmen in the Colonies w ho are now 
 beginning to occupy the places once held by the Pharoahs, Anti- 
 ochuses, Herods, Heliogabolises, Clodiuses, Dyonisius, &c. 
 and seem to vie with them in devising plans to persecute the 
 Catholic clergy and church. Gibraltar, New Yoik, and the 
 capital of Nova Scotia furnUh themes for lamentation and 
 regret. 
 
 “ Bui its all for the love of Religion.In the name of won¬ 
 der what love of religion could men have who knowingly and 
 willingly slander and villify the Bishop’s character? Such love 
 for religiorr as certain persons have had for their country, 
 when in order to serve it by disposing of the superabundant 
 population, they shot the poor peasantry like dogs, and declar¬ 
 ing at the same time that nothing was so beneficial to health 
 as a little salutary blood-letting ! Love of Religion causes 
 them to persecute the Bishop!—and this is believed in the 
 capital of Nova Scotia ! I In the country, they say it is the 
 effect of parly spirit and hate growing out of the late elections, 
 because the Bishop did not dance attendance on the wishes 
 and caprices of certain individuals. Others say that it has 
 been occasioned in consequence of an ill will towards the Bi¬ 
 shop for making certain laws relative to Catholic Marriages 
 for the real benefit of religion, but which have not mfet with 
 the approbation of certain high up folks, who, although they 
 have no objection to join in a Rosary themselves, or to read 
 their beads, have no anxiety to hear their little grand-children 
 lisping an Ave Maria or a Salve Regina Casli ; and on this 
 point the motives of the Irish and Scotch Catholics in differ¬ 
 ent parts of the country are decided, while the Cits are con¬ 
 sidered by them the dupes of hypocritical and designing men, 
 alias Love of Religion men. Other people say it is the effect 
 —and, in all probability 7 , with no small share of truth on their 
 side—of consummate ignorance and total indifference to their 
 duty as men or Christians, and the worse than Satanic pride of 
 ill-bred upstarts. 
 
 What love of Religion could the man have who would openly 
 assert, on the authority of a Priest whom he named, at a pub¬ 
 lic meeting, with tears in his eyes, that the Bishop ordered 
 the ecclesiastical gowns off the Irish Students to put them on 
 the Scotch Students, who were only fit for the plough; while 
 the Reverend gentleman alluded to, two Sundays afterwards, 
 contradicted the statement publicly in the Chapel, and denied 
 that he or the Bishop ever said so ! 
 
 I suppose, for the good of Religion, we must believe that 
 
each of these gentlemen told the truth; although the logics! 
 axiom says, “ When two propositions contradict each other 
 only one can he true.” Indeed for the good of Religion and 
 the honor of o'ld Ireland, we could wish to give this affair what, 
 in the language of Schoolmen, is called a transeal. 
 
 The liar, however, on this occasion, whether he wears the 
 black robe of a Lawyer ot the Priestly cassock, rs to be found 
 between the Bar of the Court House and the Altar in the 
 Temple of the living God. Our Catechism says, u ^o motive 
 whatever can excuse a lie and St. Augustine says that “ a 
 venial sin should not be committed for the entire world.” Per¬ 
 haps “ Love-of-Religion” men hold it as one of their doctrines 
 that it is no harm to tell a lie for the love of Religion, and that 
 on such an occesion no attention is to be paid to the words of 
 Holy Writ which says, “ Lying lips are an abomination to the 
 Lord.” 
 
 As for Students and Priests being only fit for the plough, 
 that is an old, hackneyed, and threadbare imputation—well 
 worthy of being uttered by a descendant of an old Drummer 
 or Fifer in the wars of Cromwell, and not too good to proceed 
 from the lips of a cc Love-of-Religion man.” I am sure that 
 the son of an Irish or Scotch Ploughman is as fit for the church 
 as the descendants of the Butlers, the Butchers, the Kitchen 
 Scullions, the Smaekwells—now termed Maxwells, (see Doc¬ 
 tor Doyle’s Letter to Barry Maxwell, alias LordFarnham)— 
 of a Court any day. Dean Swift would throw no reflection on 
 irishmen or Scotchmen for being ploughmen or the sons of 
 such ; for when the Lord Lieutenant ol Ireland wished to see 
 the original inhabitants of Ireland, he conducted him down to 
 the Coal Quays, and called out “ O’Connor, O’Rourke, O’Neil, 
 M'Dermott, McLaughlin,” &c. &c ; on their answering their 
 names, he said, “ There are the descendants of the Kings and 
 Princes of Ireland.” 
 
 The Scotch Students, Priests and Bishops are taken from 
 the same walks of life that the Irish Students, Priests and 
 Bishops are taken. They glory in being descended from Mi- 
 lesius, son of Heber, King of Spain, and of the successive 
 Kings and Princes of Ireland ; while Scotchmen boast their 
 descent from the same Heber, anjJ from Kit g Donald, the 
 first Christian kmg of Scotland, and rejoice to be considered 
 sons of King Donald, (McDonald signifying the son 
 of Donald.) They also vaunt of their being descended of the 
 Highland Chiefs, and ancient clans of Scotland, and laugh to 
 scorn the man who, taking advantage of their now humble 
 occupations as ploughmen or agriculturists, would dare to 
 
49 
 
 taraper with their claims to royalty and ancient greatness. In 
 former days Christians were considered as only worthy of being 
 devoured by lions and other wild beasts : in our days of mo¬ 
 dern refinement the descendants of one of the most ancient 
 Christian nations in the world are no longer considered fit for 
 the Church, and are consigned by the would-be-ecclesiastical 
 despots of the day to the plough. This ungenerous aspersion 
 levelled at the humble parentage of the Scottish and Irish 
 youths, aspirants to Holy Orders, could be flung with equal 
 force and truth on the proudest coronels of Great Britain, if 
 we can believe Lodge’s Peerage 3 and the best works on mo¬ 
 dern Biography; for among them are men lound not the least 
 distinguished for anti-Catholic hate and rancour, the immedi¬ 
 ate descendants of Weavers, Portrait Painters, Blacksmiths, 
 Fishmongers, and Row-de-dow men. The greatest statesmen 
 and warriors that ever lived were of humble parentage. Was 
 not Oliver Cromwell in his early days, a poor Brewer? Was 
 not Buonaparte the son of an humble lawyer in Corsica? while 
 we find the celebrated Catharine of Russia raised from the 
 humble occupation of a bar-maid to the dignity of an Empress. 
 In the Church we find Pope Adrian, who handed us over to the 
 tender mercies of the English, the son of an English labourer. 
 Cardinal Woolsey, Prime Minister of England in the days of 
 Henry the Eighth, whom Shakspeare calls “ a Butcher’s Cur,” 
 the son of a Butcher at Ipswich? Was not Pope Sixtus Quin¬ 
 tus the son of a Swine-herd?—This is the Sixtus Quintus of 
 whom Henry the Fourth of France jocosely said, u There 
 are only three great men in the world—Pope Sixtus Quintus, 
 Queen Elizabeth and myself;” while the reply of the cele¬ 
 brated orator and Bishop Flechier, who was the son of a Tal¬ 
 low chandler, to the Cardinal Prince and Archbishop of Be- 
 sancon, who reflected on his birth by asking him how did it 
 come to pass that he, who was only the son of a Tallow-chand¬ 
 ler, should express an opinion on a Theological subject differ¬ 
 ent from his, who was born a Prince, to which Flechier 
 replied, “ If you were the son of my father instead of being 
 an Archbishop, you would be now dipping candles !” 
 
 The children of humble but honest parentage should not be 
 discouraged from aspiring to the highest honor, either in 
 Church or State. The young men, of Scottish extraction, 
 after being consigned to the plough, called on their way home, 
 to the wriTer of these lines, and, although he has seen thousands 
 of students, he solemnly protests that he never knew nicer 
 behaved, more modest, or better conducted young men. He 
 even thinks that in Propaganda, where he has been, and 
 
 6 
 
50 
 
 where forty-two different languages were spoken, a better 
 selection could not be made for the Priesthood. Itts true 
 that they may not know how to make a most magnificent bow 
 on entering a drawing room, or to dress themselves in first 
 rate dandy fashion ; it is also true that they may not know 
 how to hedimplc their faces with fascinating smiles, well prac¬ 
 tised at the looking glass, and that they are totally ignorant 
 of the newest and most approved modes of setting wife-traps ; 
 but this deficiency is supplied by an honesty and integrity of 
 heart, a soundness of judgment, and a dignified simplicity of 
 manners which he trusts, at a future day, will render them 
 an ornament and credit to the Church of God. He is sure and 
 trusts, that not only their own Bishop, hut the Bishop of Que¬ 
 bec, and the Superiors of his Seminary will be of the same 
 opinion. Wishing them every bfessing, long life, health and 
 prosperity, the writer begs of them to recollect, when they 
 exchange the ploughshare of the Agriculturist for that of the 
 Gospel, frequently to think of the words of Saint James—“If 
 any man putteth his hand to the ploughshare of the gospel and 
 looketh behind him, he is not fit for the kingdom of God.” 
 
 I have written much more than I at first intended, and trust 
 that although the Schismaticks from the Church of Rome in 
 the Capital of Nova Scotia, commonly known by the name of 
 “ Love-of-Religion men,” will pay no attention to it, it is anx¬ 
 iously hoped that others will look to themselves in time, and 
 merit by their conduct on the occasion a just claim to the 
 character of true-born Irishmen attached to their ancient creed 
 and country. 
 
 I am, dear sir, ice. 
 
 HIBERNICUS*. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 Thr conduct of certain individuals of a certain 
 City to the venerable Bishop of this Diocese has afforded sub¬ 
 ject matter of deep-felt consideration, and of serious investi¬ 
 gation to many thiuking persons, well disposed to the Catho- 
 
lie religion in this part of the country. In fact they have come 
 to the conclusion, “ that the persons alluded to are totally 
 ignorant not only of the nature of the episcopal character and 
 the character of the Bishop himself whom they seem so anx¬ 
 ious to criminate, but also of their duties and the station 
 they should hold relatively to the Episcopal character.” 
 
 All well instructed Catholics hold that the Bishop, as suc¬ 
 cessor to the Apostles,succeeds as lawful heir to all the powers 
 which Christ had conferred upon them, when he said, after he 
 changed bread into his body, to be broken for them, and wine 
 into his blood of the New Testament to be spilled for many to 
 the remission of their sins, “ As often as you do these 
 things ye shall do them in commemoration of me.” Cathoiies 
 admit that tire powers which Christ conferred on his Apostles 
 when he breathed on them and said, “ Receive you the Holy 
 Ghost,—whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, and 
 whose sins you shall retain they shall be retained,” are still 
 handed down in the church through the means of the sacra¬ 
 ment of Holy Orders of which the Holy Older of Episcopacy 
 forms a distinct sacrament. They aUo hold that the Bishops 
 of the Catholic Church succeed to the mission and powers of 
 the first Apostles by valid and lawful .consecration ; and also 
 to (he powers which Christ conferred on his Apostles when 
 he said, “ All power is given to me in heaven and in earth: go 
 ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
 teaching them to observe whatever I li3ve commanded you, 
 and behold I shall be with you all days, even to the consum¬ 
 mation of the world.” These powers were not only conferred 
 by Jesus Christ himself on the first Apostles, but by them con¬ 
 ferred upon others whom the Holy Gho^t had ordered to be 
 separated unto him: “And as they were ministering unto the 
 Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said, 4 Separate unto me 
 Saul and Barnabas for the work where unto I have taken them.’ 
 Then they, fasting and praying and imposing their hands upon 
 them, sent them away. So that they being sent by the Holy 
 Ghost went into Seleucia,” &c. — (Acts, 13 chap.) It was the 
 conviction on the mind of St. Paul that by this holy ceremony 
 he inherited (he apostolical powers that caused him to pro¬ 
 claim himself an Apostle, a Preacher, and teacher to theGen- 
 tiles. Yes, it was this conviction that caused him to say of 
 the consecrated elements of bread and wine, “ The chalice of 
 benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion oi the 
 blood of Christ ?—and the bread which we break, is it not the 
 
partaking of the body of Christ?' 5 And, again, “ Let a man 
 try himself, and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup ; for 
 he who eateth or drinketh unworthily, eatelh and drinketh 
 judgment to himself—not discerning the body of the Lord. 55 
 St. Paul not only received these powers himself but conferred 
 them upon others : <c Neglect not the grace that is in thee—• 
 that was given thee by prophecy and the imposition of 
 the hands of the Priesthood. ” — Tim. 1 Epis., 4 chap.; and, 
 again—1 chap. 2 Epis.—“ I admonish thee to stir up the grace 
 that is in thee by the imposition of hands. At another time 
 he tells him to impose hands rashly on no person ; 55 and, writ¬ 
 ing to Titus—1 Epis. 1 chap .— €t For this I left thee in Crete 
 — to ordain Priests to all the cities as I have appointed thee. 55 
 It was the conviction on the mind of St. Paul, with regard to 
 every Priest possessing apostolical powers, that caused him, 
 writing to the Hebrews, to say—“Every High Priest taken 
 from among men is ordained by men in the things that apper¬ 
 tain to God, to offer gifts and sacrifice for men and again, 
 Heb. 13 chap —“ We have an altar of which they cannot eat 
 who serve the tabernacles.” 
 
 Not only do we find the Apostles themselves receiving the 
 apostolical powers from Jesus Christ, and then handing down 
 these powers to their immediate successors, but these succes¬ 
 sors consecrating and appointing Bishops. Thus, St. Ironeus 
 tells us, thal Linus and Clement were consecrated Bishops of 
 the See of Rome by St. Peter and St. Paul; while Eusebius 
 and other ancient monuments inform us that St. Mark was 
 first Bishop of Alexandria, and was succeeded by Anianus, &c. 
 &c., and thus from the days of the x\postles down to our days 
 we have a constant succession of validly and lawfully ordained 
 pastors, possessing the apostolical powers, and lawful heirs 
 and inheritors of those powers. Not only does the Church of 
 Rome hold their doctrine, but the Church of England and the 
 Episcopalian Church of the United States of America, and 
 seem as anxious as we are to support and to maintain this doc¬ 
 trine for us. 
 
 The Church of England holds and maintains that, at the 
 time of the Reformation, the apostolical powers were handed 
 down from the ancient Catholic Bishops who possessed them 
 to the newly reformed Bishops, through the connecting link 
 of a validly, at least, consecrated Bishop Doctor Barlow, who 
 consecrated Doctor Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 
 days of Queen Elizabeth, from whom all the rest of the 
 reformed Bishops derive their apostolical powers; and although 
 Catholic Divines have demanded repeatedly when, and where, 
 
and by whom Doctor Barlow was consecrated, never have the 
 Church of England Bishop been found to deny the necessity 
 of having these powers handed down from, or that theyexist in 
 the Catholic Church. Although Catholics have disputed the 
 authenticity of Parker’s consecration in Lambeth Palace, and 
 have asked who were present on the occasion, and what is the 
 reason that the registry of his consecration could not be pro¬ 
 duced for forty years after it was said to have taken place : 
 although Catholics constantly object to the members of the 
 Church of England that Queen Elizabeth was obliged to sup¬ 
 ply, by her royal authority, whatever was deficient in the 
 ordaining of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops—-which evidently 
 shews that at that time a deficiency was admitted to exist: 
 although the Church of England admits the validity of the 
 ordinations and consecrations of the Church of Rome, while 
 the Church of Rome rejects those of the Church of England — 
 ordaining absolutely and not conditionally the Ministers who 
 return to her fold—and cite lengthened passages from the 
 learned Le Brun—one of the most able writers on the litur¬ 
 gies of the different churches—who does not hesitate to state 
 that the learned writers who have written in favor of,or against, 
 the validity of the consecrations of the Church of England 
 have caused interminable litigations on that head : although 
 a high authority of the Catholic Church, now no more, is said, 
 when he was asked his opinion with regard to Anglican ordi¬ 
 nations, to have replied, “ Nothing is certain but the certainty 
 of the uncertainty of the certainty of these ordinations : not- 
 wilbslanding all this, still the Church of England has never 
 denied our claims to these powers or that the validly and law¬ 
 fully ordained Bishops of the Catholic Church are heirs to the 
 Apostolical powers. Nay, on their claims to the Apostolical 
 succession of Parker, through Barlow, (whom they assert to 
 be a validly consecrated Bishop,) they do not hesitate, in 
 their form of ordering Priests, to say—the Bishop laying his 
 hands on him who receiveth the order of the Priesthood— 
 “ Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest 
 in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the imposi¬ 
 tion of our hands ; whose sins thou dost forgive they are for¬ 
 given and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained; and 
 be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of the 
 Holy Sacraments. In the name of the Father,” ; and 
 again, at the consecration of a Bishop, the presiding Bishop 
 and Bishops present, laying their hands on the head ot the Bi¬ 
 shop elect, the presiding Bishop says, u Receive the Holy 
 Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of 
 
51 
 
 God, now comrniTfed unto thee by the imposition of our bands 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost.—Amen. And be sure <o stir up in thee the grace that 
 is given thee by the imposition of our hands; for God hath not 
 given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and sober¬ 
 ness.” 
 
 If, then, not only the Catholic Church holds that her Bishops 
 possess the apostolical powers, but even the Church of Eng¬ 
 land exercises these powers, which she claims to have derived 
 in the person of the first consecrated reformed Bishop Par¬ 
 ker, through Barlow, from the ancient Catholic Bishops, as 
 absolutely and with as great & degree of certainty as to her 
 possessing them, as if no doubt or difficulty had ever arisen on 
 that head ; if, then, the Church of England admits these 
 powers to exist in the Church of Rome, and claims from her 
 llie tradition of them, although disputed, how much more so 
 should not Catholics admit and acknowledge these powers, 
 where no dispute or doubt exists on the minds either of Ca¬ 
 tholics or Church of England men with regard to her posses¬ 
 sing them? Is it not, then, evident that if Catholics do not 
 admit these powers, or act as if they do not admit their exis¬ 
 tence—as they hare done of late in a certain city—that they 
 do not know or are not acquainted with the nature of those 
 powers which our beloved and venerated Prelate possesses as 
 successor to the Apostles on the most indubitable and indis¬ 
 putable titles ? 
 
 They must also be ignorant of theBishop’s character, which 
 in itself forms an epitome of all the virtues which our beloved 
 and venerated Prelate possesses, and which, according to St. 
 Paul, should adorn a Bishop’s character. He is chaste, pru¬ 
 dent, hospitable, &c. He is more perfect than even St. Paul 
 seems to demand, for St. Paul sa>s, a Bishop sould be the hus¬ 
 band of one wife, but our Bishop is like St. Paul himself, and, 
 as St. Paul recommends all men to be unmarried, he lias no 
 wife. His charities and his labours as a Parochial clergyman 
 know no bounds. His character as a man, abstracting from 
 his episcopal character, may be given in the words of the 
 Poet— 
 
 4t lie is the noblest work of God —an honest man.” 
 
 Nay, the writer of these lines would pledge his life for it to¬ 
 morrow, that in Nova Scotia a character so depraved would 
 not be found, for any sum that might be offered him, as to 
 impeach the Bishop’s character with anything like a serious 
 offence; although, in the days of St. Athanasius, persons were 
 found to accuse the sainted Prelate with murder, and to pro- 
 
due?, as it were, the hand of the murdered man to corroborate 
 their evidence;—although the jailor's daughter, in Drogheda, 
 was found to accept a large sum of money to accuse the vene¬ 
 rable Primate of 1 reland, Doctor M‘Creagh, who would not 
 admit the spiritual supremacy of Queen Elizabeth or accept of 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction at her hands, with a heinous offence, 
 no sooner was she brought into court to give evidence against 
 him and beheld hir saintly and apostolical countenance, than 
 she fell down before him, and confessed her guilt ;—although 
 an Anna M‘Garaher might have been found of late days to 
 impeach with sintflar guilt Ireland’s greatest champion in the 
 field of religious controversy, and who w as proved to be not 
 only a perjurer but worse—the great O’Connell repeating 
 on the occasion the memorable words of Shakspeare—“ There 
 are three things not to be depended upon—the tamenes of a 
 wolfe, the soundness of a horse, or the oath of a prostitute;” 
 —still it is positively asserted that no individual in all Nova 
 Scotia could be found to appear in the public courts to im¬ 
 peach the venerable Bishop of this Diocese with the smallest 
 offence. They know too well the exalted worth and character 
 of the venerable Prelate and the estimate set upon it in No¬ 
 va Scotia and Cape Breton to attempt it. And were the per¬ 
 son who pens these lines to form an opinion of the sentiments 
 of the judicial bench with regard to our Prelate from the sen¬ 
 timents lately expressed in his presence by one of the most 
 enlightened and distinguished for reputation of that body, great 
 indeed would be the hardihood and matchless tlu& effrontery of 
 him who would undertake to discharge the odious task. 
 
 But a Priest has been found to do so, and is on his way to 
 “ the head of all the churches ” to perpetrate the unhallowed 
 act of falsely criminating his Bishop. We all know that fact. 
 Who is ignorant of it 1 But is it not also true that many a 
 man dug a pit for another and fell into it himself 1 The 
 accusation will do credit to the Bishop at the Court of Rome : 
 it will shew that he knows the canons of the Church with 
 regard ro episcopal jurisdiction and observes them ; and that 
 he will not let Priest or Laymen infringe on his prerogatives 
 as Bishop, by dividing Parishes themselves and appointing 
 Parish Priests. 
 
 The good gentleman is gone, uo doubt, to “ the head of all 
 the Churches/’but not until he sets the Parishioners in a 
 flame, leaving themselves to put it out while they wait in vain 
 for his return, like the fool sitting on the banks of a river 
 waiting for the waters to flow by until lie would pass over to 
 the opposite bank. 
 
56 
 
 K But we will not let the odium of accusing (he Bishop of 
 what he is not guilty fall upon one man. YVe will share the 
 disgrace with him.—We will imitate the conduct of certain 
 Grand Jurymen in a county town of the old country, who, 
 when the high sheriff could get no person to discharge the office 
 of hangman, all of them took hold of the rope and put it about 
 the man’s neck, and shared with him the disgrace. We will 
 all in a body share the odium of viliifying the Bishop’s charac¬ 
 ter, and prevent one person of being solely accountable for 
 it. 7 ’ 
 
 But was not the Sheriff called a hangman, and the twelve 
 Grand Jurymen twelve hangmen, and their children pointed 
 out to this day as the descendants of hangmen ? Take care 
 that if you all discharge the disreputable office of Priest-catch¬ 
 ers or Bishop-catchers, you do not be branded with the odious 
 appellation expressive of your crime, and that your children’s 
 children be not pointed at as the descendants of the first inhe¬ 
 ritors of the ignominious cognomen. 
 
 The people who have claimed to themselves the exercise of 
 episcopal powers, and who have attempted to villify the Bi¬ 
 shop’s character, are not acquainted with the nature 
 of the episcopal character or the respect due to it. 
 The Catholic Church is a spiritual kingdom established by 
 Jesus Christ, possessing a spiritual independence with which 
 she does not allow Emperors or Kings to interfere—telling 
 them that Christ never said to them “ Go teach all nations,” 
 &c., but to the Apostles and their successors. She also holds 
 that the ecclesiastical authority resides in a body of pastors 
 established by Jesus Christ, which she terms the Church 
 teaching—the episcopal body united to its chief, the Roman 
 Pontiff. The Bishops are appointed to govern the different 
 portions of the Church of God, and not the people ; and each 
 Bishop could now exclaim, in the words of St Paul, with as 
 truth as St. Paul himself, “ For Christ, thefore we are ambas¬ 
 sadors ; God, as it were, exhorting by us.”—11 Cor. 5 chap. 
 But do we not read in ecclesiastical history that the people 
 at different periods of the church, named their own Pastors ? 
 Yes, we do ; but always with the consent, approbation, and 
 confirmation of the Bishop. It never was insisted upon as a 
 right by the people to nominate their pastors : it was a request 
 on their part acceded to by the Bsshop ; and it is even certain 
 that if the persons who have so unfortunately distinguished 
 themselves for a spirit of revolt against their Bishop had wait¬ 
 ed for the natural demise of their present most excellant Pas¬ 
 tor, or until Divine Providence, in its all wise and adorable 
 
decrees should dispose of him otherwise, and then applied to 
 the Bishop lie would willingly and cheerfully accede to their 
 wishes and nominate the person whom they so anxiously de¬ 
 sired. But as things now staud, they have nothjng to do but 
 lay down the arms of revolt against the episcopal authority, 
 and to trust to the Bishop’s clemency, and not to his justice. 
 It would be desirable that these misguided people would read 
 the fate of Core, Dathan and Abiron, and two hundred and fifty 
 of their adherents who obtruded themselves in the sanctuary of 
 the Lord and usurped the right of discharging the Priestly 
 functions—the earth broke asunder under their feet, and open¬ 
 ing her mouth, devoured them, and they went down alive into 
 hell, and the earth closed upon them. Oza, for only touching 
 the Ark, was struck dead upon the spot; and King Jeroboam 
 (3d Book of Kings, chap. 13,) only stretches out his hand to 
 lay hold of a prophet of the living God, and his hand fell shri¬ 
 velled by his side. They would do well to read again and 
 again St. Luke, chap. 10, and Matthew*, chap. 10, and contem¬ 
 plate the sad fate of those persons who would not receive an 
 Apostles, and reflect on what must be the punishment of those 
 who persecute and calumniate them. 
 
 The Church during the approaching season of Lent, makes 
 use of these words in the Post-communion of the Mass— 
 ,l Humiliate capita veslra Deo &c.— “ Bow down your heads 
 to God, and encourage your children—after the manner of the 
 Ninivites ofold—to do penance sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” 
 — Would it be too much to expect that the persons who 
 have usurped the discharge of the office of a more sacred mi¬ 
 nistry than that of the old law’—who have touched, with pro¬ 
 fane intentions, that which is more sacred than the ark of the 
 covenant, the depository of the episcopal power—who have 
 stretched out their hands, not to arrest but to assassinate the 
 character, not of a Prophet, but of a High Priest of the New 
 Law, and who have not only refused to him but sought to 
 deprive him of his high office; would it be too much to expect 
 that they would bow down their necks to the Lord, and by 
 fastig and prayer—sitting in sackcloth and ashes like the 
 Ninivites of old—mourn over the threatened calamities to 
 themselves and families to be anticipated from these words— 
 “ Better for Sodom and Gomorrha on the day of judgment 
 than for these cities who do not receive you.” ? 
 
 That Irish Catholics and the descendants of Irish Catholics 
 in Nova Scotia, would imitate the example of their ancestors 
 and countrymen at home in respecting and venerating the 
 episcopal character, and that, like them, they would abstain* 
 
 H 
 
58 
 
 from taterfeting and intermeddling in what solely concerns 
 episcopal jurisdiction, is the sincere wish of 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 I perceive by the latest accounts from the Capi¬ 
 tal of this Province that much good has already been achieved 
 by the letters which you, with the characteristic independence 
 of your country, had the manliness to insert in your public 
 journal. 
 
 Many of the people have confessed, on reading them, that 
 until then they did not know what they had done when they 
 opposed the Bishop’s ecclessiastical jurisdiction, and that 
 sooner than form a schism in the church, or be reputed schis¬ 
 matics, they would willingly suffer the loss of all they possess. 
 Many of the poor people thought, that in order to form a 
 schism with the Church of Rome, change of rites and cere¬ 
 monies was at least necessary. On this point they have been 
 most grossly deceived ; for the best ecclesiastical historians 
 inform us “ that during the life-time of Henry the Eighth no 
 change took place in the rites and ceremonies in the Church 
 of England,” and that only a few words, on the authority of 
 the great Le Brun, are found in the Litanies to denote a 
 schism, namely “From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome 
 and all his detestable errors, good Lord deliver us:” and still 
 England was pronounced and deemed a schismatical church by 
 the Church of Rome for the space of fourteen years before the 
 death of Henry the Eighth. It is true that the Greek Schis¬ 
 matics differ only in rites and ceremonies and want of due 
 obedience to the papal authority from the Church of Rome, 
 but the Priest who, on his own authority, would either omit 
 the received usages or ceremonies of the Roman ritual and 
 introduce new forms of worship, and persist in them, after due 
 notice from the Bishop, would be most justly considered a 
 Schismatick. 
 
59 
 
 Some of (he poor people are sincere penitents ; others, 
 although externally they appear most penitent, are suspected 
 for a want of sincerity ; and it supposed by many that their 
 manifestation of contrition proceeds from the conviction of 
 their cause being hopeless and ruined, than from a truly con¬ 
 trite and penitent heart. In the hope of doing these last 
 mentioned personages an essential service, I will ask them, as 
 if present, a few questions—and in their name reply to them— 
 which I trust will be attended with the most beneficial 
 results. 
 
 My good friends, would you—or men of your humble rank 
 and station in society—ifyou were at home in Ireland, presume 
 to obtrude yourselves into the apartments or notice of your 
 Bishop, by attempting to dictate to him how he should govern 
 i»is Diocese? Would you undertake (o dictate to him how he 
 should divide the parishes of his Diocese, or the persons he 
 should appoint as Parish Priests? Neither would you, I am 
 confident, be so rash as to tell him that no person should be 
 promoted to Holy Orders without first obtaining your appro¬ 
 bation ? I am sure that, so far from attempting such a thing, 
 a remote thought of it would not enter your minds ; and if you 
 did, such conduct would be without a precedent. My opinion 
 is, that were you to attempt to dictate to a Bishop at home, 
 he would tell you, in a grave and very solemn tone of voice, 
 41 My good friends, I never interfere with your business, why 
 should you interfere with mine P’—It has been oftentimes 
 remarked by men the most observant on these matters that 
 they who are aptest to interfere in other men’s business are 
 frequently very liable to forget their own. — Go home, there¬ 
 fore and mind your own business, and let me mind mine.” I 
 do not say that at the end of the staircase you should have 
 reason to think that you got a broad hint to be off, but, most 
 assuredly, you would not be treated with the same degree of 
 facetiousness with which Dean Swift is said to have treated a 
 certain Knight of the Thimble, who came to controvert cer¬ 
 tain passages of the Apocalypse with him.—The Dean, anxious 
 no doubt to get rid, if not of a dangerous rival, at least of a 
 very troublesome one, a>ked him did he ever read of the An¬ 
 gel in the Apocalypse with one foot in the sea and the other 
 on dry land, and whose head touched the heavens, to which lie 
 replied, To he sure I did . 59 il Will you he sp kind as to tell 
 me how many yards of cloth it would take to make a certain 
 article of dress for that angel which I shall term inexpressi¬ 
 bles V 9 asked the Dean, To which the good-natured fellow 
 replied; “ I cannot tell/’ ” Go home then,” said the Dean, 
 
60 
 
 “ and learn your own trade first, and then come back and teach 
 me mine.” 
 
 44 Indeed, sir, we must confess, that at home we would not 
 take the liberties with a Bishop we have taken with Doctor 
 Fraser. We have been there taught to know better tilings 
 than to attempt to dictate to, much less to command a 
 Bishop. ” 
 
 Ai d why, then, take such liberties with the Bishop of No¬ 
 va Scotia ? Does he not possess the episcopal character as 
 well as they do ? Is he not their equal in all respects—equally 
 learned, pious and charitable as they are?—indeed, if we can 
 believe those who are judges on such subjects, he yields not a 
 whit to any of them. Why, then, did you treat him as you 
 have done? 
 
 41 We thought, indeed, we could gain our ends without any 
 difficulty or our wicked designs been discovered ; and now, 
 that we have lost all hopes of succeeding, we are very sorry for 
 what we have done. ,, 
 
 If these be your apologies they do you no credit any how. 
 One is the apology of a convicted thief, who will tell you, if 
 you ask him why he committed the robbery for which he is 
 condemned. “ I thought I would not be detected the other 
 reply brings to our minds the W'ords of the celebrated French 
 assassin Cartouche, who, on being sentenced to be broken on 
 the wheel, deplored and lamented the last murder he commit¬ 
 ted. Upon being asked why he lamented so much the last 
 murder and shewed so much iudifference to the other murders, 
 he replied, 44 For the last do you not see me condemned to 
 die a most frightful and cruel death?” 
 
 “ But, sure, the great gentleman backed us, and urged us 
 on to what we have done.” 
 
 Did you ever hear of the geutlemen in the the old country 
 insulting a Bishop or a Priest?—and if you did, please tell me 
 when and where] You will admit, no doubt, that Lord Falk¬ 
 land is a gentleman of the highest standing in society—a gen¬ 
 tleman by birth, family and fortune—and no doubt you have 
 been informed of the dignified and courteous manner he treat¬ 
 ed all the Catholic Bishops that visited the capital during the 
 past year. George the Fourth, of England, was considered 
 one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his day, and no 
 doubt 3 ? ou heard how r he received the Catholic Bishops during 
 his visit to Ireland in 1821; and perhaps (although it is not 
 supposed a matter of fact,) that you have read Eustace’s Tour 
 in Italy; still you might have heard how' the same King, when 
 Prince of Wales, visited Rome, and, like all distinguished 
 
61 
 
 was introduced to the reigning Pontiff’, Clement the Four¬ 
 teenth, known from his writings by the name of “ Pope Gan- 
 genelli.” All preparations were made to receive so distin¬ 
 guished a visitor ; the Pope was solicited to dispense with the 
 oriental ceremony of kissing the cross on his slipper, which 
 was immediately acceded to. The young Prince was inform¬ 
 ed ot the arrangements, but positively insisted that he would 
 not dispense with any of the ceremonies, particularly that of 
 kissing the cross on the slipper. On being introduced to the 
 Pope he fell on his knees and went through the usual ceremo¬ 
 nies; the young Duke of Buckingham, who was present, 
 remained standing and looked sternly at the ceremony going 
 on, when the Prince perceived it, and told him to go on his 
 knees. The Pope perceived the embarrassment occasioned 
 between a reluctance to comply with the Prince’s wishes and 
 a fear to disobey them, and immediately afforded him an 
 opportunity of honorably releasing himself from his difficult 
 position, saying to him in a most paternal manner—“ Go on 
 your knees, my child, and receive my blessing—an old man’s 
 blessing can do you no harm.” The young Duke immediately 
 complied ; and both the Prince and Duke left the Pope's 
 apartment highly pleased and delighted with each other. 
 
 See, then, that not only Catholics but persons of the highest 
 birth, and Protestants, have been taught and have paid the 
 greatest deference to the dignitaries of the Catholic Church, 
 which you not only refuse to pay but even insult, and, as much 
 as in your power lies, endeavour to trample under foot. 
 
 You have, no doubt, heard of two unfortunate Clubs that 
 were within the last century in existence in Ireland—one 
 named the tc Hell-fire Club, 5 ’ the other the “Connaught 
 Blazers.” The members of these societies, so distinguished 
 for their courage and recklessness of life, were of the first 
 families and the highest blood in Ireland. It is true that they 
 were not distinguished either for piety or sanctity—for their 
 names savour of the reverse—but still there was a law amongst 
 them, depraved as we have been told they were, “ That no 
 person should insult a Priest or Clergyman of any description; 5 ’ 
 as they could not have what is termed gentlemanly satisfac¬ 
 tion—their hands being bound. It is also said that if any one 
 did so he was expelled from the society, and if he attempted 
 to obtrude himself again, received the contents of the dog-lash 
 —now-a-days termed, l>y sporting gentlemen, a fiogger. Ma¬ 
 ny instances of their love for the Catholic Priesthood are 
 recorded—and it is even related that duels were fought by 
 some of them with some of their near relations merely on 
 
62 
 
 account of their claiming it as a right to have it in their power 
 (o show how much more than others they patronized arid pro- 
 tected the Catholics and Catholic Institutions ; but, at any 
 rate, one thing must be indisputably admitted—that they were 
 gentlemen of the noblest blood in the old country, pretended 
 to no religion, and still they loved, protected, and fostered the 
 Catholic people and Clergy—while your great gentlemen of 
 low blood or no blood, as they are, profess to much religion— 
 being all “ Love-of-Religion men”—harrass not only the second 
 order of the Clergy, but the head of the Catholic Church of 
 Nova Scotia, the Bishop himself. 
 
 “ But, sure you know wc were poor people in the old coun¬ 
 try. We were in the habit of doffing our hats to every village 
 tyrant, and saying to him, ‘ Please your honor,”—a phrase 
 ns servile as “ Massa” in the mouth of a colored man ; and 
 sure when such great men came to our houses, and seemed to 
 put the care of their souls into our very pockets, we could not 
 but feel proud and complimented. We are sure our poor mo¬ 
 thers, when they rocked us in the cradle, never thought that 
 we would be so honored before our death as being noticed by 
 such great gentlemen.” 
 
 I admit all you say. Every word of it, I must confess, is in 
 perfect acordance with truth. But that does not justify your 
 attack on the Bishop. 
 
 “ We thought that the great gentlemen we so much honored 
 and feared should and ought to be honored by the Bishop too, 
 and that, if he would not do so, the blame should not be laid 
 at our doors. Neither did we think that Scotchmen were 
 such people as we now know them to be, or we would not for 
 the world act as we have done. 5 '* 
 
 Know, then, that Scotchmen are not only great people now 
 hut always were; and that the Romans of old who conquered— 
 it might be said—the world, could not conquer them; though 
 they endeavoured, by running or building a wall between 
 the River Tyne and Eden, in Cumberlandshire, and between 
 Forth and Clyde, to keep them out of their British possessions. 
 How then could you, a mce o! poor, servile, and enslaved peo¬ 
 ple think to frighten the Bishop and the descendants of such 
 warlike heroes? 
 
 “ The gentlemen told us we could do to, and we wished to 
 appear very great in the eyes of the world at laige, 
 particularly of our poor friends at home, who, if they heard 
 we could dispose and make Bishops ai our will and pleasure, 
 would imagine that we could fight windmills, and that we 
 were greater than kings.” 
 
 
 
63 
 
 You have been greatly deceived. These (l great gentlemen” 
 thought to make cat’s paw’s of you, to make you befieve that 
 it was a love of religion caused them to oppose the Bishop, 
 when it was nothing but spite and malice arising out of elec¬ 
 tions, and from the salutary laws made by the Bishop to pre¬ 
 vent the Catholic Religion of passing out of certain families, 
 who, although they did not wish to forsake it themselves, had 
 no desire that their posterity should possess it ; and of this 
 truth you could easily be convinced by looking around you, 
 and a little practical observation. My opinion is that your 
 “ great gentlemen” have very little religion, if any at all. If 
 they had they would not be so unlike what you call the real or 
 high blooded gentlemen, in the old country, as to have meddled 
 with or molested a Bishop, or any of his Clergy. They may 
 be called tc gentlemen,” but, in my opinion, they belong to 
 that class of gentlemen the cc old gentleman ” belongs, and well 
 worthy of being classed with the Messieurs Chevaliers dugrand 
 Chemin } gentlemen knight’s of the King’s highway. You read 
 the fable, no doubt, of the ass that clad himself in the lion’s 
 skin, and frightened all the beasts of the forest almost out of 
 their lives, but when they discovered that he was an ass he 
 was first belabored and and then became an object of ridicule 
 and mockery to them all.—You have clad yourselves with the 
 lion’s skin but no one has either feared or dreaded you, and 
 you are now objects of mockery and scorn to all the good Ca¬ 
 tholics of the Province, and of hatred and contempt to all 
 your poor country people, whom you have thought so much to 
 injure. 
 
 But you have spoken ill of the Scotch people, and that be¬ 
 hind their backs too.—Very honorable ! Now let me ask you 
 if Field-Marshal M‘Donald, of distinguished celebrity under 
 Buonaparte, was present, or a regiment or two of Scotch 
 Greys—such as so bravely distinguished themselves on tho 
 plains of Waterloo—would you abuse and insult the Scotch¬ 
 men as you have done? 
 
 “ Ob, indeed we would not—we know better things than 
 that—for, if we did, we would bo cut to pieces on the spot.” 
 
 Do you not know' then, that detraction is one of the great¬ 
 est crimes you could commit, and considered such by the Ca¬ 
 tholic Church; and that St. Augustine had these words writ¬ 
 ten in large letters in his refectory— <c Si quis vult abscnlum 
 rodere amicum absit a vica mensci — 
 
 “ Who would an absent friend malign 
 Shall be no guest no friend of mine.” 
 
64 
 
 “ Indeed we know we have acted very badly, and are sorry 
 for it. We were led into the snare by bad company that calls 
 its members gentlemen; but, we trust, if God forgives us, ne¬ 
 ver to be guilty of the like again, We also thank you most 
 sincerely for the pains you have taken with us.— Adieu.*' 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 [for THE ACADIAN RECORDER.] 
 
 Messrs. English & Blackadar, 
 
 A writer in the Piclou Observer , of last week, has asserted 
 that the Catholics of this city “ are unanimous in their manifes¬ 
 tation of bad feeling arid hostility to their Bishop.” This, 
 Gentlemen, is a sweeping assertion, and calls for some reply. 
 If the silence, under present circumstances, of the friends in 
 this city of the venerable and highly respected Bishop of 
 Tanen, the Reverend Doctor Fraser, has led the writer in the 
 Observer to think so, I hope these few lines will remove such 
 an erroneous impression. The friends of that truly Apostolic 
 Prelate are not disposed to cause any unnecessary excitement; 
 but should it at any future period be necessary that an expres¬ 
 sion of opinion should be given by the parishioners of St. Ma¬ 
 ry’s, as to his immaculate chharacter, and saintlike virtues, 
 it will be then shewn where the majority is: it will also be then 
 seen that they are what they always have proved to he, (with 
 a few exceptions) a body prepared to bow with Christian hu¬ 
 mility, to the spiritual authority cf the Church, and to respect 
 the sanctified otBce of him t( through whom the spirit of the 
 Holy Ghost descends upon them.” There are not I am posi¬ 
 tive, at this moment to be found in this city fifty Catholics 
 who ore even disposed to oppose his Lordship’s spiritual juris¬ 
 diction, or to shew any disrespect to his person or country. It 
 is not necessary for my purpose, at present, however, to enter 
 into any detail of circumstances, to prove to the public, and 
 
Go 
 
 to the writer alluded to, that the above remarks are correct. 
 But I send you my name as a guarantee, that 1 am prepared, 
 at any time, if necessary, to shew that writer, that his charge 
 against the majority of the Catholics of this city, is (I trust 
 on his part unintentionally) unfounded. 
 
 VERITAS, 
 
 Halifax, February 24th, 1342.. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 In reply to the foregoing letter, which appeared 
 in the Acadian Recorder of the 26th instant, the writer in the 
 Piclou Observer begs leave most respectfully to request of the 
 writer of that letter to call to mind th£ promises he has made 
 of justifying the Catholicsof Halifax from having any act or 
 part in the late scandalous and malevolent attacks against the 
 jurisdiction and episcopal authority of the Right Reverend 
 Doctor Fraser. He even trusts that he will effect his object, 
 notwithstanding the great and almost insurmountable difficul¬ 
 ties thrown in his way ; for, although he may differ from the 
 writer in the Piclou Observer with regard to his opinion of the 
 conduct of the Catholics of Halifax, he respects the manifes¬ 
 tation, on his part, of love and respect for the venerated and 
 venerable Bishop. The writer in the Pictou Observer trusts, 
 that notwithstanding the following Resolutions—passed at a 
 General Meeting of the Parishioners of St. Mary’s, (which 
 includes all the Catholics of Halifax,) held in the School Rooms 
 of the Parish, 14th November, 1641—that Veritas will gain 
 his point, and prove to the learned world that the Parishioners 
 of Halifax are free from any participation in the wicked doings 
 against the Bishop, and that they not only respect and vene¬ 
 rate his character but admire and approve of the manner he 
 administers the spiritual concerns of the Diocese: — 
 
 “ On motion of the Hon. M. Tobin, senior, seconded by 
 Mr. T. Kenny— 
 
 “ Resolved , That the Rev. Mr. Dease, on his arrival in 
 Dublin, be requested to place himself in communication with 
 his Grace the* Most Reverend Dr. Murray, Archbishop of 
 Dublin, and the other dignitaries of our Holy Religion, in 
 
 i 
 
66 
 
 freland, and, after a fair, candid, and full statement of oar' 
 condition and necessities, be guided by their counsel and ad¬ 
 vice, as to the most effective mode of accomplishing the pur¬ 
 pose of submitting to the Holy See the circumstances of this 
 Parish—its requirements, its resources, its wants, and the 
 expedients for our relief ; and that such further consideration 
 of our claims be humbly and dutifully solicited as will tend to 
 replace the temporal and spiritual interests of our sacred faith 
 in this country upon a basis of support and improvement com¬ 
 mensurate with that love for our Church and desire for its 
 security which has ever characterised the Catholics of this 
 Province.” 
 
 The Chairman declining to put the above Resolution from 
 delicacy to his Lordship, and which the Meeting fully appre¬ 
 ciated, it was offered by the Secretary, (L. O’Connor Doyle,) 
 and passed unanimously. 
 
 “ On motion of Mr. T. Kenny, seconded by Mr. Malony— 
 
 l( Resolved , That Copies of the proceedings of this Meeting, 
 with the Petition to and answer from the Bishop, and the let¬ 
 ter and address to the Rev. Mr. Dease, and the Report of tlxe 
 Committee, be transmitted to his Grace the Archbishop- of 
 Dublin, the Bishops of Quebec, Boston, Montreal, New York, 
 and Charleston, with a request that his Grace and their Lord- 
 ships will be pleased to exert their interest with the Holy See 
 to remedy the evils of which we complain.” Passed unani¬ 
 mously. 
 
 <c On motion of Mr. Thomas Ring, seconded by Mr. R. 
 Cunningham— 
 
 Resolved , That a letter expressive of the obligations we 
 owe to his Grace for the kind interest which he evinced in the 
 selection of the Clergymen which his Lordship sent at our re¬ 
 quest to this Parish, and of unraingled regret that their situ¬ 
 ation here has been rendered so uncomfortable as to cause the 
 withdrawal of one, and the possible retirement of the other, be 
 addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin.” Passed 
 unanimously. 
 
 To the third Resolution the writer in the Pietou Observer 
 says, it is a downright falsehood that the Archbishop of Dub¬ 
 lin sent Clergymen out here at the request of the Parishioners 
 of Halifax, and gives his Grace’s letter to Doctor Fraser in 
 corroboration of his statement of this fact— 
 
67 
 
 Dublin, 26 f/i May % 18 S§. 
 
 %% My dear Lord, 
 
 “ 1 am at length, aftor various disappointments, enabled 
 to execute the important commission entrusted to me, of sending out 
 to your Lordship’s aid two respectable Clergymen. 
 
 “ When I had the honor of writing to your Lordship on the 
 28th of last November, 1 had secured the consent of two, but their 
 vocation was not strong enough to resist the solicitations of their 
 temporal friends to remain nearer home ^ I have latterly engaged two 
 others—whose services promise to be efficient—the Rev. Richard 
 O’Brien, and the Rev. Laurence Dease ; the latter gentleman is a 
 regular, but he has received the consent of his superiors to place 
 himself entirely under your Lordship’s jurisdiction. I have divided 
 equally between them the sum of £100, which your Lordship depo¬ 
 sited with Messrs. Wright & Co. for that purpose, and they are 
 preparing to sail with the least possible delay. 
 
 “ I avail myself of this opportunity to assure your Lordship of 
 the very sincere respect with which 
 
 xc I have the honor to be, 
 
 “ My dear Lord, 
 
 41 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 •{« D. MURRAY. 
 
 ** P.S. The Rev. Mr. O’Brien seems well calculated to take 
 charge of the education of youth in the Seminary.” 
 
 To the Right Rev. Doctor Fraser. 
 
 With legard to the motives which have occasioned the 
 the silence of the Catholic Parishioners so long on national 
 prejudices the writer in the Pictou Observer intends to be silent 
 unil he sees Veritas’s reply, which he trusts will be given, not 
 by a decimal fraction of the people—a one seven-thousandth 
 part of the Catholic population—but by a w hole number, lack 
 fifty, oflhe members of the entire body of Catholics, crying 
 out, “ Viva Doctor Fraser —long may he live to adorn the 
 Church of Nova Scotia, and to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdic¬ 
 tion among us ; and down, down for ever with his enemies, 
 the grossly malevolent, stupidly ignorant, and wicked-hearted 
 Schismatics of Halifax.” Trusting that Mr. Veritas will see 
 this letter, and give it an immediate and satisiaclory reply, is 
 the sincere wish of 
 
 Yours, £cc. 
 
 A Writer in the Pictou Observer, 
 
 alias 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
6S 
 
 P. S. The writer in the Pictou Observer beg3 leave (o add 
 that after a decision comes from the Court of Rome, or that 
 the news arrives that the subject of complaint has been treated 
 with contempt in that quarter, tie will hold no correspondence 
 with Veritas or his friends ; he will look on them as cowardly 
 soldiers coming into the field after the battle was won or irre¬ 
 trievably lost, and for ever remain confirmed in his opinion of 
 the w’orthlessness and irreligion of the people of Halifax. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 In my last I mentioned some of the causes urged 
 by the poorer classes of the Irish Catholics of Halifax for 
 joining their more wealthy leaders in their unrighteous attack 
 on the character of the IJishop. Some of these unfortunate 
 delinquents, or rather agressors on episcopal authority, are 
 true penitents ; others are not so sincere in their demonstra¬ 
 tions of contrition as could be wished for ; whilst others per¬ 
 severe and glory in all the harm they have done, are doing, and 
 anticipate that they shall do. They boast that they have 
 sent to Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin — to assist them in 
 dethroning the Bishop—and to the Pope himself, the il head 
 of all the Churches while they do not deny that they have 
 solicited the assistance of the Hierarchy of the United States 
 to aid them in obtaining the end of their unholy warfare. 
 Nay, so sure are they of success that they have already hoist¬ 
 ed the flag of victory. But time, and time alone will disclose 
 the issue of this nefarious undertaking. The writer knows 
 too well the elevated character of the Archbishop of Dublin to 
 imagine for a moment that he will accede to the wishes of such 
 men. 'Dignity and elevation of thought is stamped on bis ve¬ 
 ry brow; and bespeak it Reason’s Temple, the Palace of the 
 Soul. Were a person to ask me to give him an idea of the 
 dignity and calm serenity that reign in imperturbed tranquil¬ 
 lity on his brow', I should answer him in language attributed 
 to Louis the Eighteenth, when asked to give a description of 
 the countenance of Abbe Edgeworth, the Irish Priest who 
 attended his brother, Louis the Sixteenth, to the scaffold— 
 “ Form an idea of the countenance of Saint Michael, the 
 
69 
 
 Archangel, and then you will have the best idea that I can 
 impart to you of it.” Indeed it could be said of it what the 
 Empress of Austria is said to have said of the countenance of 
 Pope Piti9 the Sixth, 44 Non e pin bello que santo ,”—Its beauty 
 does not exceed its sanctity. Of this Pope, Buonaparte speak¬ 
 ing, said, 44 His intellectual endowments would have enabled 
 him to fill the throne of an Alexander or Phillip of Macedon 
 with immortal fame.” And well indeed might he have said 
 so, for when he offered him, in prison, the French white cock¬ 
 ade, with a pension, he refused them in language breathing 
 piety and resignation worthy of an Emperor, 44 I acknowledge 
 no uniform except (hat with which the Church decorates me. 
 You have power over my body but my soul is beyond your 
 reach. I want no pension—my crozier for a walking staff, 
 and a light covering, is enough for me, who am soon to expire 
 in sackcloth and ashes. I adore the hand of the Most High, 
 who punishes the shepherd for the sins of the sheepfold. It is 
 in your power to burn and destroy the habitations ot the living 
 and the monuments of the dead, but as for our religion, it will 
 be after us as it was before us, and will continue till the end 
 of time.” On another occasion, the Emperor sent to him a 
 message that he would gladly confer on him any favor he 
 demanded, an averment in downright contradiction with the 
 state of imprisonment to w hich he was subjected. His Holi¬ 
 ness gave the following answer, characteristic of his mighty 
 mind, “ Give my thanks to the Emperor, tell him that I only 
 wish him to remember an old man in prison ; and as to my 
 wants, I will thank him very much if he sends me a needle 
 and thread to fix the buttons on this old dress I wear.” 
 
 What will be the answer of the venerable Archbishop of 
 Dublin to the emissaries of the Schismalical confederacy in 
 the capital of Nova Scotia, on requesting of him to aid them 
 in the unhallowed work of dethroning a brother Bishop, I wilt 
 not presume to surmise ; but, should they offer him gifts and 
 presents on the occasion, I err very much if he does not reject 
 them in words similar to those of the Trojan chieftain— 
 “ Timeo Danaos donaque ferentes — 
 
 “ From men schismatic I confess I dread 
 
 To accept, much less demand, needle or thread.” 
 
 “ But the Pope has been petitioned.” 
 
 So he w'as last year by the Gibraltarites, after he addressed 
 to them a most courteous reply, they refused to obey his 
 orders while they yielded most implicit obedience to the man¬ 
 dates of Lord Brougham. Will he again, this year, expose 
 
70 
 
 his expostulations to similar contempt? I doubt it much, and 
 though he upholds the conduct of his predecessor, St. Gregory 
 the Great, who lived in the sixth century, “ that the gospel is 
 not to be preached with a cudgel/’ still he must admit that the 
 sceptre of the Queen of the British Isles has great influence 
 in bringing refractory subjects unto due obedience to his pa¬ 
 pistical authority and episcopal jurisdiction. Lord Brougham 
 has only to cough his disapprobation and that of the Que»en at 
 the conduct pursued towards Doctor Fraser, Bishop of Nova 
 Scotia, and all will be peace and tranquillity in a moment. 
 And should the illustrious Lord Falkland make it known that 
 all Priesl-catchers and Mitre-fighters, whether they be laymen 
 or ecclesiastics should be debarred from his levees; and that 
 neither honors, titles, loaves nor fishes should be given to such 
 characters, they would soon become as meek and as mild 
 looking as tame wolves, and as harmless as toothless old tigers 
 that could not bite. 
 
 It is also said that they wrote to the States for ecclesias¬ 
 tical auxiliaries to enable them to carry on the unholy war¬ 
 fare. Why did they not, Murtagh M‘Murragh like, go or send 
 to England? 
 
 “ Oh, England is in possession of the Colony of Nova Sco¬ 
 tia, and holds the hearts and affections of the people as if in 
 a balance. She has no desire for her subjugation, such as it 
 is reported Henry the Second entertained with regard to Ire¬ 
 land in the days of IVPMurragh. Neither could we expect 
 our hopes to be realized in that quarter from their conduct in 
 liberating the captive Bishop of Gibraltar last year.” 
 
 What the intention of the United States may bo to this 
 country we will not presume to state, but all I hope for is, 
 that should any undue intrusions be made from that direction 
 on our civil or ecclesiastical liberties, that the Irish and Scotch 
 Catholics will recollect the noble example of fidelity and loy¬ 
 alty set them in Upper Canada a few years ago, and resist to 
 the last all encroachments on their rights as British subjects and 
 Homan Catholics. England, on the occasion alluded to, 
 admitted of her obligations to Doctor M‘Donald, Bishop of 
 Upper Canada, for the undeviating, and not exceptionable 
 (even in a single instance,) loyalty of the Irish Roman Catho¬ 
 lics in that Province. Let her fling the mantle of her protec¬ 
 tion over the Catholic Bishop of Nova Scotia, and in the love, 
 esteem and fidelity of his people they may be sure bo find an 
 insuperable barrier to future aggressions on the rights and 
 independence of British subjects. 
 
 “ But will the Pope appoint any man to this See whose pain- 
 
71 
 
 oip 1 es, from the influence of early education, might be inhni- 
 cable to monarchial government, and raise just surmises in 
 the minds of his temporal rulers of his questionable loyally, 
 and although well fitted to be a Bishop under a Republican 
 government, not at all suited to a monarchial form of Govern¬ 
 ment, like ours?” 
 
 Do you think is the Pope less inclined to give to the British 
 Th rone the same security now and similar assurances of hrs 
 good will towards it as several Pontiffs did before him, as 
 attested in their records. One of which, Pope Pius the Sixth, 
 in a letter addressed by his authority and command through 
 Cardinal Antonelli, dated Rome, June 23, 1791, to the Irish 
 Bishops, and which contains the following words of Pope Be¬ 
 nedict the Fourteenth, used on a former occasion when writ¬ 
 ing to the English Bishops:—“ The Vicars Apostolic are to 
 take diligent care that tlie missionaries behave on all occasions 
 with integrity and decorum, and thus become good modes to 
 others; and particularly that they be always ready to celebrate 
 the sacred offices, to communicate proper instruction to the 
 people, and comfort the sick with their assistance ; and that 
 they by all means avoid public assemblies of idle men, &c. 
 The Vicars themselves are particularly charged to punish in 
 such manner as they can, but severely, all those who do not 
 speak of the government with respect.” 
 
 In fact, a person would imagine that the days of the Cru¬ 
 sades were renewed—that in placing the mitre on the head of 
 a Scotch Bishop the Saracens had taken possession of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, and if Jerusalem is not now to be delivered, 
 a work of as great importance to the interest of Religion is to 
 be achieved : the Mitre—the emblem of Episcopal jurisdic¬ 
 tion is to be rescued from the hands of a Scotch usurper of its 
 rights and authority, and to be placed upon the brow of its 
 rightful occupant, a Sainted Erigena, or the free-born son of 
 the Independent States—famed for their love of Liberty and 
 hatred to Negro Slavery ! 
 
 One would imagine that another Peter the Hermit had ari¬ 
 sen in our days, in the person of a Franciscan monk, to solicit 
 the aid of foreign Courts and Republics to effect the good 
 work. No doubt but modern Godfries de Bouillons, Ugo il 
 Grandes, and Raymondos de Toulouses will be found among 
 the 11 popolo non vtilgo of a certain city to rescue the 
 holy spoil from the hands of its present usurper. No doubt 
 the spirit of prophecy was dormant for a long time, or the 
 mighty deed would have been long since foretold ; otherwise 
 we should have at least as much intimation of it as Monte- 
 
zuma is said (o have had of the arrival of the Spaniards, when' 
 he sard—(See Dryden’s Fairy Queen.) 
 
 <c Old prophesies foretell our fall at hand, 
 
 When bearded men in floating castles land.” 
 
 I hope the admirers of the unholy work of unfrocking a Bi¬ 
 shop, as Queen Elizabeth would term it, will have no occasion 
 to say how— ' • 
 
 “ In the glorious achievement, with forty thousand men, 
 
 He first walked up the hill and then—walked down again.” 
 
 It is also a subject of serious contemplation where a Poet 
 will be found to celebrate the magnanimous deed—whether a 
 Tasso or a Peter Pindar must arise from the grave to cele¬ 
 brate the glorious exploits of these illustrious and, no doubt, 
 victorious combatants. It is expected that no modern poet¬ 
 aster will attempt, in Hudibrastic style, to celebrate the 
 deed— 
 
 They agree in nothing but to wrangle 
 About the slightest Angle (angle, 
 
 Or to make the rabble judges 
 
 01* all their secret piques or grudges. 
 
 In which, whosoever wins the day. 
 
 The whole profession 5 s sure to pay.” 
 
 As an Irishman, anxious for the honor and glory of my 
 ancient religion and country, I can find no words in the Eng¬ 
 lish language sufficient to convey my sentiments of contempt 
 and abomination of their conduct, and must have recourse to 
 an ancient Irish phrase to give imperfect utterance to what I 
 feel — <{ Morrvgh faske ariv gu laur 
 
 But will the thousandsof Irish, Scotch, French, Indian, &c. 
 Catholics lie dormant and make no exertion on the occasion? 
 Will they resemble the Apostles Peter, James and John, who 
 slept while their Lord and Waster sweated drops of blood in 
 the garden of Gethsammi. Let the chief agents in the busi¬ 
 ness be pointed out, and their names, shrouded in black, be 
 given to such papers as are alive to the interests of so large a 
 portion.of the people, and are willing to make the Press what 
 it ought to be, the terror of all would-be petty tyrants. Let 
 the women as well as the men lend their assistance ; there are 
 lorty out of fifty thousand Catholics to back them. Let the 
 women read the history of Judith and Esther, in the sacred 
 volume, and that of Joan of Arc and Janet Geddes, in modern 
 profane history, and, no doubt, the aggression on the mitre of 
 
73 
 
 I^Tova Scotia will be soon stayed, and the honor of Ireland 
 saved. Above all things let the Bishop, Priests and people 
 take the most effectual means to prevent the occurrence of 
 such a disgraceful scene at a forthcoming period of time. 
 Should any persons dread that they should become the victims 
 of want, from offending their customers and employers, let 
 them read the words found in the thirly second and thirty 
 third Psalms—“ Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that 
 fear him, and on them that hope in his mercy. To deliver 
 their souls from death, and feed them in famine. The death 
 of the wicked is very evil; and they that hate the just shall be 
 guilty. The Lord will redeem the sons of his servants; and 
 none of them that trust shall offend.” And should they die 
 martyrs in the cause, their praises at least shall be justly cele¬ 
 brated in the words of the British Poet, Cowper— 
 
 f ‘ Patriots have toiled, and in their country’s cause 
 Bled nobly ; and their deeds, as they deserve, 
 
 Receive proud recompense. 
 
 But fairer wreaths are due, tho’ never paid, 
 
 To those who, posted at the shrine of truth, 
 
 Have fallen in her defence. 
 
 -Their blood is shed 
 
 In confirmation of the noblest claim— 
 
 Our claim to feed upon immortal truth— 
 
 To walk with God —to be divinely free— 
 
 To soar, and to anticipate the skies! 
 
 Yet few remember them. 
 
 -With their names 
 
 No bard embalms and sanctifies his song ; 
 
 And history, so warm on meaner themes, 
 
 Is cold on this. She execrates, indeed, 
 
 The tyranny that doomed them to the fire; 
 
 But gives the glorious sufferers little praise.” 
 
 That this tedious letter may have a good effect on those for 
 Whom it is intended—that the hitherto indifferent to what is 
 going on before their eyes may be roused into a spirit of acti¬ 
 vity—and that all good Catholics, particularly Irishmen, will 
 make every exertion to secure the independence of the Catho¬ 
 lic Mitre of Nova Scotia, and thus consult not only I or their 
 own honor but for that of their religion and country, is the 
 sincere wish of 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 K 
 
 HIBERNICUS, 
 
74 
 
 Sin,— 
 
 Give me leave to congratulate you on the happy 
 results attendant fon your giving insertion in your valuable 
 Journal to the numerous communications you have received 
 from this part of the country, concerning the unhallowed and 
 unchristianable proceedings towards our Bishop and the church 
 of which we are members now carrying on in the capital of 
 Nova Scotia. It is mainly attributed to your giving publicity 
 to these documents, and the establishment of the Temperance 
 Society amongst us, that we have not had, ere this, a waste of 
 human life as well as of human blood. 
 
 Emissaries, whether sent forW; from the capital or of their 
 own accord, having passed through this country, endeavouring 
 to excite feelings of rancour and disaffection towards our Bi¬ 
 shop, of the most malevolent description. They have adopted 
 most extraordinary means to effect the object of their unhal¬ 
 lowed undertaking: scattering tracts, containing various com¬ 
 munications with the Bishop and the people of the great city, 
 and with the people of the great city and other Bishops, both 
 on the new and ancient continent. They have had recourse 
 to all kinds of artifice to gain their point : they feel the great¬ 
 est love for religion and its interests—extol in unmeasured 
 terms the learning talents and zeal of the men who have occa- 
 sioned all these ecclesiastical disturbances, and villify and 
 degrade to the utmost the Bishop’s character, and all those 
 who seek to discountenance their proceedings. One of these 
 men has been traced to the neighbourhood of Antigonishe, 
 where he is universally admitted to be one of the worst and 
 most infamous characters in the country. 
 
 The poor Irish people here will not give a night's lodging 
 now to any peTson without first enquiring how he is affected 
 towards the Bishop. It is needless to say that none of these 
 cowardly would-bo assassins of the episcopal character ever 
 attempt to unload themselves of any of the burden of their 
 vile and infamous detraction at the doors of Scotchmen ; they 
 are somewhat too ripe for that ; and, although they know 
 what their conduct richly merits, they do not seek remunera¬ 
 tion in that quarter. 
 
 The poor people are quite puzzled here with regard to these 
 great men of ecclessiastical renown in the city. They ask 
 are they such great men as they are described to be—such 
 "scholars—such preachers—such saints as they are reported to 
 be far and wide; and if they be, why so unlike the great, truly 
 learned, and universally admitted great preachers, Priests and 
 Bishops at home, and whom they had known in the old country. 
 
75 
 
 It is not indeed a very pleasing task to be obliged to unde¬ 
 ceive them; still, it becomes an imperative duty to do so, and 
 to assure them that in no one respect, as teachers, preachers, 
 or laborious missionaries, are they entitled to the high encomi¬ 
 ums set forth in their behalf by the enemies of the Bishop and 
 his episcopal authority. And this we aver with regard to the 
 very best of them, without fear of contradiction from compe¬ 
 tent and impartial persons, appointed to adjudicate the ques¬ 
 tion. To say nothing of the duties or labours of a missionary 
 Priest, generally, or at least oftentimes, concealed from the 
 public eye, we will speak of bis public duties as a preacher, 
 and boldly and confidently assert that he is not acquainted 
 with the manner of delivery, style of composition, or the mode 
 or manner of producing the effects which are invariably atten¬ 
 dant on good preaching And this I shall undertake to prove 
 to the satisfaction of any competent or impartial person, with 
 regard to the very greatest of tlie claimants to pulpit honors. 
 
 “ Well, what do you say to his manner of delivery?—Is it 
 not excellent ? and is not his composition inimitable ?—the 
 effects truly grand and apostolical?” 
 
 I deny all ! With regard to the science of declamation, he 
 knows nothing at all about it. He does not know how to place 
 his hands in accordance with the prescribed rules of that 
 most graceful and difficult of arts, if we can give credit to 
 those persons who have written on the subject, and who were 
 universally admitted as perfect adepts in its acquirement. 
 Indeed, to see his extravagant and uncouth performance in 
 that way in the pulpit, the idea of a deer sporting wilh the 
 shadow of its horns, reflected from the tranquil waters of an 
 umippled lake, must unhesitatingly present itself to our ima¬ 
 gination; or a certain animal, the female of which in Ireland is 
 called the poor man’s cow, hounding on the hard rocks, or on 
 the brink of some frightful precipice in his native mountains, 
 seemingly anxious, by many a ludicrous position of his body, 
 to court death itself. His composition bids defiance to all the 
 powers of criticism: for all the rules of composition for pulpit 
 eloquence arc laid prostrate in the dust. No division of parts 
 _as the French preachers observe—no features of ?n exor¬ 
 dium, narration, explanation, argumentation, confirmation, 
 or perrorration are discernible in the entire outlines of the 
 rhetorical portrait ; and this mighs be left to the decision of a 
 mere tyro in the school of rhetoric. The virginal virtue of 
 modesty, redolent with the charms of chastity—that sweet 
 smelling flower, in the ianguage of Massillon, in the garden of 
 our God—is totally rejected, or rather repudiated, by the 
 
70 
 
 -eminent modern orator. And, indeed, to look at him in the 
 pulpit, you would imagine that you beheld all the passions 
 mentioned by the poet working for superiority, now exulting, 
 now raging, now trembling, and again fainting : 
 
 c< Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined, 
 
 Till once, His said, that all were fired. 
 
 Filled with fury, rapt, inspired; 
 
 While each (for madness ruled the hour,) 
 
 Would prove his own superior power.” 
 
 One passion alone is wanting, and the least influence of it 
 seems to be rejected—the passion of the meek and humble 
 Jesus—who, like a lamb was led to the slaughtet, like a sheep 
 under the shearer, not opening his mouth : who, when he was 
 accused opened not his lips, nor even uttered a word in his own 
 defence. In fact, to see the illustrious orator in the pulpit, 
 you would think that he covered his countenance with an 
 iron vizor ora treble plate of brass ; while you would imagine 
 that you read in visible characters these w'ords depicted on his 
 distorted countenance : “ Be astounded, you groundlings, did 
 you ever hear such eloquence as that before ? But that is 
 nothing to what is to come on—wait a while, and I promise 
 you I will give you something to talk of, and what you will not 
 forget in a hurry. 5 ' 
 
 And what are the fruits of these pulpit exhibitions ? What 
 might be expected.—They are not the fruits of the ministry of 
 a preacher of the gospel of peace—which are joy, peace, pa¬ 
 tience, benignity, goodness, mildness, modesty, &c.—but 
 rather (hat of a minister of iniquity, the fruits of w hose minis¬ 
 try, St. Paul (Gal. 5 chap.) terms enmities, contentions, 
 wraths, quarrels, dissentions, sects or schisms, envy, &c.; and 
 indeed were you to see the people after one of these edifying 
 lectures you would imagine that you saw persons of a certain 
 class in the old country, returning from the pugilistic arena, 
 each cheering the champion of his country or party, rather 
 than people coming out of the house of God, impressed with the 
 solemnities of the mysteries at which they had assisted, and 
 aw'ed into reverential meditations by the nature of the divine 
 revelations they had heard explained, and the heavenly truths 
 that had been laid open to their view. In fact, we have no 
 doubt that numberless gloves would be scattered at the doors 
 of the other churches of the city had not a conviction been 
 impressed on the minds of the people that no literary champion 
 would be found to compete, much less to contend with him. 
 But are the fruits of his learned harangues the fruits of peace? 
 
I deny it. Can any one, speaking of the effects of his aposto¬ 
 lical labours, exclaim, 41 How beautiful are the footsteps of 
 those who preach peace, and establish its blessings among 
 the people of God.” ? I defy any one tu say so. You may 
 call them preachers of peace, but I soy they resemble more a 
 pair of Sampson’s foxes escaping from the corn-fields of the 
 Philistines, and carrying fire and flame on their tails through 
 the people of God, setting them into confusion and disorder in 
 every direction. Yes, you may call them bright shining stars 
 in the temple of God, but people as wise as you are, and as 
 anxious for the welfare of religion, consider them blazing com¬ 
 ets with fiery tails, spreading combustion and desolation in 
 every direction, and communicating ruin and destruction to 
 every object that come in contact with them. 
 
 We do not pretend to be great judges of pulpit oratory our¬ 
 selves, but our want of knowledge on t hat head can be supplied 
 by books. A piece of pulpit oratory to be perfect should pos¬ 
 sess a warmth of character which should breathe through the 
 entire discourse and animate its conversation. The action 
 should be various and emphatic, without appearing studied or 
 outrageous; the voice should be full and melodious, and the 
 utterance successively solemn, earnest, melting and impassi¬ 
 oned, without the least appearance of affected modulation. 
 The glance should be piercing, the countenance austere and 
 commanding, while the whole delivery should be in perfect 
 unison with the evangelical style and spirit of the discourse— 
 which should bear strong impression of vigorous original con¬ 
 ception and glow ing zeal, illuminated by sound judgment, and 
 a perfect knowledge of human nature. Above all things, a 
 modest diffidence of his own oratorical powers, and a want of 
 capability to do justice to the subject should be discernable to 
 all; and this never fails to interest the most learned in favorof 
 the preacher, and the success of his undertaking—this asser¬ 
 tion being borne out by facts of too illustrious a description to 
 be disputed or called into question. On a late occasion, dur¬ 
 ing the pontificate of Pope Leo the Twelfth, one of the most 
 distinguished preachers, (now a Cardinal at Rome,) is said to 
 have been so overpowered either by the greatness of what he 
 felt on the subject he discussed or by the splendor of the audi¬ 
 ence that surrounded him, that, seeing he could not proceed 
 with his discourse, he descended from the pulpit, and pros¬ 
 trating himself at the feet of the Pontiff, he exclaimed, “ He 
 who exalteth himself shall be humbled;’ 7 to which the Pope 
 replied, taking off his Soli Deo and placing it on the head of 
 the preacher— by which act he raised him to the dignity of 
 
78 
 
 Cardinal—“ And lie who humbleth himself shall be exalted.” 
 It is no proof of the extraordinary prowess of a pulpit orator 
 to say that the people are delighted or enchanted with his dis¬ 
 course. It is rather a proof of the contrary, if we can believe 
 the authority of Louis the Fourteenth, King of France, who, 
 when asked his opinion of Massillon, whom he styled King of 
 Preachers, replied. “ I have heard many preachers and was 
 pleaded with them, but I have never heard Massillon buj I was 
 displeased with myself.” 
 
 If I could hear the people of a certain city faulting them¬ 
 selves after a sermon, without praising the orator to the stars 
 while they seemed perfectly at peace with themselves, then 
 indeed I might be inclined to award him the justly merited 
 meed of praise, and to rank him as high, if not higher, as a 
 pulpit orator, than any of his, at present injudicious, and by 
 no means qualified on such a subject to give a decision, 
 admirers. 
 
 “ But, sir, we consider him the first preacher of this or any 
 other age. St John Chrysostom, who was called the golden 
 tongue of eloquence, was far inferior to him. He far exceeds 
 St. Bernard in the sweetness of his enunciation, of whom it 
 was said that the words dropped from his lips sweet as drops 
 of honey from the honey-comb; and St. Augustine was no 
 more than a wretched pigmy compared to a huge giant, when 
 put in competition with him when he flings the thunderbolts of 
 the gospel at the existing vices of the day.” 
 
 But who has raised him from the very humble walks of an 
 ordinary speaker to the highest summit of earthly fame as an 
 orator ? 
 
 “ Who did so? Did we not do it ourselves ? Who eise do 
 you think would take the pains or trouble of doing so, or would 
 lose their time in such an unprofitable undertaking ] We 
 have placed him as a Christian orator on the highest pinnacle 
 ofpulpit eloquence. We maintain and hold that the greatest 
 lights that ttie world ever saw were only extinguishing tapers 
 to him—a mere nothing but a firefly on a summer’s eve com¬ 
 pared to the meridian sun in the full blaze of its glory. You 
 may talk of your holy Ambroses, blessed Bernards and sainted 
 Chrysostoms, and vaunt their praises to ttie skies; but we 
 hold and maintain that they were nothing but mere schoolboys 
 playing with satchels when put in competition with our match¬ 
 less orator. As for Massillon, Bourdolon, Fenelon, Bossuet, 
 &c\, they should not be spoken of or their names even men¬ 
 tioned on the same day, much less on the same occasion with 
 his. lie is the greatest light that the present or gone-by 
 
71 
 
 vrerld ever saw. In fact he is the wonder of wonders, and the 
 greatest wonder that the wondering world ever wondered at. ,r 
 
 But by whom has he been raised to so high a pitch of eleva¬ 
 tion — to the tip-top turr et of the temple of pulpit oratory ] 
 
 That question was asked before, and w e answ ered it in plain, 
 intelligible language — we ourselves have raised him to his emi¬ 
 nently distinguished rank and justly merited renown.—Do you 
 think we are not capable of doing so ] The fact speaks for 
 us that we have done so, and { one fact is worth a thousand 
 arguments . 9 99 
 
 But pray what authority lias formed you into a faculty of 
 theology, entitling you to confer degrees. I never knew be¬ 
 fore that the Catholics had an Academy of Sciences and Belles 
 Lettres in the Capital of Nova Scotia, possessing such extra¬ 
 ordinary powers, and if there U'as, where are teachers qualified 
 to fill the literary departments of the establishment? Indeed 
 if there was a Temple of Dunces erected in the Capital of 
 Nova Scotia, many students and professors worthy of filling 
 the highest chairs or stations in the establishment could be 
 easily procured. It is not so easy to found a University as it 
 is to establish a Corporation. Men of experience in the 
 world, and good common sense will suit the one, while men of 
 great and extensive learning are required for the other. 
 
 “ But, to be candid with you, it was nothing but a species 
 of indescribable insubordinate pride that caused us to raise him 
 or at least to endeavour to raise him or to make the world 
 believe that he was so raised in our estimation. We must 
 confess that we are ignorant and uneducated, (our parents 
 having no means to educate us in our youth,) and that our 
 ignorance has been imputed, indeed very unjustly, to our reli¬ 
 gion, It is also the opinion of our dissenting brethern that if 
 we were somewhat more enlightened than what we are, that 
 we would not be Catholics at all. And, indeed, this is a truism, 
 for we should have long since gone over the other way, as may 
 be fairly concluded from our late conduct in the metropolis,only 
 that a conviction on our minds that our vulgar and uncultivated 
 habits would only furnish butts of laughter to the members of 
 the different creeds of the other religious denominations. We 
 also know that our money procures for us a certain degree of 
 ascendancy among the poor Irish, and that were we to change 
 our religion, (and that supposes we have 9ome to change,) 
 we would be called apostates and totally despised by them. 
 It is evident, then, that we had more reasons than one why 
 we should wish to raise him so very high in public estimation. 
 We had but very little anxiety to raise him, but we had great 
 
so 
 
 and mighty ambition to raise ourselves ; and we thought by 
 puffing him into consequence we might puff ourselves also. 
 To be sure we knew well he was not the great man we let on 
 to believe he was, but was it not a very pleasing thing to us 
 to hear it said as we went along, “ The Catholics are not such 
 beasts as we thought them to be—did you hear the great 
 preacher they have got] He is admitted by all a great man, 
 and they themselves say that he is as great as the Pope, if not 
 greater ; at least they admit him to he the greatest man that 
 is now or ever was in their Church.’ ” 
 
 Yes, I know you have puffed him up in the eyes of the 
 public from motives of shallow-minded, empty pride ; but, in 
 doing so, were you not guilty of a very great act of injustice 
 ami deception, to endeavour to make tho world believe that he 
 is vastly superior to so many of the excellent ecclesiastics of 
 this diocese, who far exceed him in every respect, both as to 
 sound judgment on subjects of profound erudition, anti a know¬ 
 ledge of the various branches of polite literature. Have we 
 not a Roman Doctor of Divinity in this diocese who speaks 
 his own language with all possible ease and facility, the Eng¬ 
 lish language, and the Italian language—the most beautiful of 
 all—termed the language of birds ] Have we not many other 
 eminent men, who studied in Italy, France, Spain, Lower 
 Canada, &c., by far his superiors, not only in learning, but 
 even in common manners and good breeding ? Place this 
 great man, I will not say by the side of such great men as the 
 Most Rev. Doctors Crolly, Murray, and M‘Hale, but beside 
 the Rev. Messrs. M‘Guire, the celebrated controvertist, 
 M'Cauley, the first science scholar ofthe day, Cowper, univer¬ 
 sally and deeply read, or Miley, the first pulpit orator in Dub¬ 
 lin, and ask me what does he look like. A mere nobody or 
 nothing—not even as much as a glittering bubble on dark 
 waters, which first sparkles and then bursts. But what is lie 
 when put in competition with Bishops Scott, Murdoch, and 
 Gillis, of Scotland, with Doctors Lingard, Wiseman, and Bains 
 in England, with Cardinal Boland, Bishop Fressinous, or 
 Monsieur L’Abbe Rosin, in France, with Cardinal Metzzo- 
 fante, who speaks forty two different languages, and of whom 
 Lord Byron said, c< He is the greatest wonder that the ancient 
 or modern world ever saw, with Cardinal Mai, the greatest 
 classical scholar of the age, with Cardinal Michara, the first 
 of Roman Preachers, and considered the best speaker now 
 living, of the Italian language ? You cannot say ? I will 
 then answer for you. He is just as worthy of being compared 
 with these enlightened men as the twilight is to the meridian 
 
Si 
 
 sunshine—the ignis fatuus or Will o’ the Wisp, to the greal 
 luminary ot day. When ranked with these men he resembles 
 nothing more or less than a wooden effigy placed arnon^ 
 golden statues. And the idea of making him one of the grea*t 
 men of the Church—what the French term ct Un dcs grande 
 hommes da Ciiristianisme —is truly absurd and ridic! lous. Tho 
 Catholic Church counts and has counted within her pale the 
 greatest and most august characters that ever lived—the Em¬ 
 perors Constantine, Charlemagne, Otho, Charles the Fifth of 
 Germany, and Napoleon Buonaparte, Empeior of the French; 
 the greatest of Kings—the Clovises, the Pepins, the Edwards 
 of England, tlie Donalds, and Saints Fiacre and Davfd, of 
 Scotland, and St. Cormick, King and Archbishop of Munster, 
 in Ireland, &c. Sec.—The greatest artists, the Michael Ange¬ 
 los, the Raphaels, and Le Bruns;- the greatest of Generals, the 
 Bayards, the Howards, and Turennes; the greatest astrono¬ 
 mers and philosophers—Gregory the Thirteenth, who mea¬ 
 sured time as if in a balance, Christopher Columbus, who 
 discovered America, Galileo, who invented the solar sys¬ 
 tem, the Pascals, the Walmsleys, and Des Cartes : the great¬ 
 est of Poets—Pope, Dryden, Tasso, Ariosto, Dante, Ossian, 
 Carotin, and the celebrated living Poet Moore ; to say nothing 
 of O'Connell, Shell,. Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Du Petrin 
 Thenard, Sec.—And now let me ask any many of common 
 sense, is the great Novascotian Orator worthy ot being ranked 
 or named among such great men? I will defy any man of any 
 pretensions to talent, io answer in the affirmative. He is 
 worthy to be named among them at most in the quality of a 
 lackey, or in the humble capacity of a “ dccrotkur des souliers, n 
 anglicised a “ shoe-black.” 
 
 The people of the Capital of Nova Scotia fell down before 
 him, and worshipped with all the homage of heartfelt venera¬ 
 tion and respect, as the presiding deity of the arts and sci¬ 
 ences, and in whom all the attributes of great learning, unex¬ 
 plored regions of science, and unexampled specimens of 
 oratory were concentrated. In doing so they did very little 
 honor to themselves or their little acquirements; while the 
 poor creature who allowed himself to be duped by their syco¬ 
 phancy should have long since, if he were not flattery-proof,, 
 shared the fate of the frog in the fable, who thought to swell 
 itself into the enormous, for it, dimensions of an ox, and burst. 
 In paying tho tribute of their unbounded praises and unfeigned 
 prostrations of homage to the shrine from whence the shadow 
 of a man of greatness is not reflected, they have acted more 
 absurdly than the Pagan people that we read of, who sacrificed 
 
82 
 
 an ox to a fly. Although I should be the first to condemn 
 theatrical exhibitions, and to recount the words of Tertullian 
 with regard to a Christian woman who went to see a play acted 
 by the Pagans, became possessed of a devil, arid being exor¬ 
 cised by the Priest of the Church, the Priest, in the language 
 of the ritual on exorcism, asked the evil spirit how dare he 
 take possession of a Christian, he answered boldly, and said, 
 “ I found her in my own house, which I style the theatre j” 
 still, I would unhesitatingly admit that ntore tender feelings of 
 philanthropy would be excited by seeing the tragedy of Dcs 
 Orphelius des Chineses —which drew abundant tears from the 
 eyes of the Frence audience, when first acted at the Theatre 
 de l’Odeon, at Paris—than a hundred such sermons as we 
 have heard from the learned pulpit orator ; and that perform¬ 
 ance of the tragedy of George Barnwell would frighten more 
 people from the commission of crime than all he should say in 
 a month of Sundays ; while Dean Swift’s last speech and dying 
 words made for Mr. Ebenezer Twizzle, and supposed to be 
 pronounced by him at the place of execution, has reclaimed 
 more and brought them back from the paths of vice than all 
 the sermons he ever preached or will preach, were he to live 
 to the age of Mathusalem. 
 
 Indeed, were he to take up one of the larger Catechisms 
 and study it well, or some French Prones, and endeavour to 
 instruct the poor, he might do some good ; but no good can be 
 done by endeavouring to act the part of a court preacher 
 where there is no court—and if there was, he might be sure 
 he would not be permitted to preach. What a pity it is that 
 people would not take a lesson from the sage old proverb 
 which saith, “ Hand sutor ultra crepidam ,”—“The cobbler 
 should not go beyond his last.” 
 
 As for his classical acquirements we cannot say much ; but, 
 if we could believe his late bitterly lamented and departed 
 friend, they are not of the most resplendant de«criplion. On 
 the authority of the same learned friend, the inquisitorial pro¬ 
 duction which more than once has figured in our papers was a 
 mere plagiary from Doctor Wiseman, and which his great love 
 for the reputed author, and the honor of the literary reputa¬ 
 tion of the Church most anxiously (although he told it to num¬ 
 bers,) labored to conceal. 
 
 I have no great predilection for an old garment, borrowed 
 or not borrowed, and I am of opinion that any article of dress 
 after being worn two or more years becomes threadbare, and 
 that all sap and substance becomes wasted away in that time 
 by the action and counteraction of heat and cold. And I am 
 
33 
 
 also of opinion, that a piece of dry metaphysical disquisition, 
 after being worn out of the minds of the people, makes a 
 very graceless appearance on its second exhibition to public 
 view, prefaced with a word—the mighty name of the supposed 
 compositor—and the more so, as it did not get a second invi¬ 
 tation, and came unasked and unsent for, and heartily uuwel- 
 come to many. 
 
 A name is a preface, l admit, on many 6ccasions, and the 
 strongest recommendation a work could have : thus works on 
 the human understanding, on the sublime and beautiful, and 
 on astronomy, would bear the stamp of the highest authority 
 by having the names of Locke, Burke, and Newton prefixed 
 to them ; but what weight could our learned friend's name add 
 to any work, except it be an essay on trash, or a treatise on 
 absurdity. I must confess were he to lend the great authority 
 of his name to a work on u Informing,” that the captivating 
 charms of such a name would throw a halo of glory around the 
 production; aud if it was not read by persons of the finer feel¬ 
 ings and more delicate order of human beings, there would 
 be ample compensation for the loss by its being literally de- 
 devoured and eaten as if alive by the compilers of such works 
 as the Newgate Calendar, Lives of Noted Robbers, Highway¬ 
 men and Sea Pirates, &c. 
 
 As for a certain newspaper I am not inclined to say much, 
 but if one half of what we have heard be tiue, about the man¬ 
 ner they treated the descendant of that race of men that was 
 termed Hiberniore’s Hibcrnis, and his wife, an Englishwoman 
 and a convert to the Catholic Church, with two female chil¬ 
 dren, the grand actors in the drama must have hearts, not of 
 flint, but of tigers or vampires, and of them with cjnfidence ! 
 shall assert—having the royal psalmist to bear me out in what 
 I predict—“ He who loveth iniquity hateth his own soul: the 
 death of the wicked shall be most direful : the desires of the 
 wicked shall perish—in a little time the place where they 
 stood shall be trackless: I saw the wicked man exalted like 
 the cedars of Libanus ; I passed by for a little time, and his 
 place was not to be found.” Indeed the people are beginning 
 to view its patrons and contributors with suspicion, and already 
 are they beginning to perceive the head of the serpent of schism 
 protruding its revolting features through its columns, and of 
 their own accord approach it with a seizure of alarm and fear, 
 while the better informed cry out, “ Gelidus anguis latet in 
 her bis, ”_“ Beware of it, lest the poisonous serpent it enve¬ 
 
 lopes should bite you.” 
 
 As for the College, we all regret bitterly to see it on the 
 
S4 
 
 brink of destruction; and if something be not done in time i i 
 sinks not to rise again, in all probability, for a long time. The 
 Scotch say, “ Why pay taxes tor the endowment of a college 
 where our children will not be admitted, or must, if they enter 
 it, run away from it.” Indeed, in gone-by days, people could 
 say with truth that the aspirants to a liberal education sought 
 for it in Ireland— u Siquisquis studio legcndi pcrmotus fucrat 
 ivit in Hibermam but now' Scotchmen by descent and natives 
 of the soil—Novascotians by birth—shall seek for it in vain at 
 the hands of Irishmen in a College in Nova Scotia that they 
 were chiefly instrumental in establishing, and whose Superior 
 receives a large salary from the taxes paid and earned from 
 the Mveatdrops of Scotchmen. 
 
 We also fretted much to hear how the youths of the humble 
 classes were treated, and how they were, from fear of the cat 
 with nine tails induced to run wild through the country in all 
 directions, while the children of the high-up-folk, although 
 richly deserving it were never allowed to smell, much less come 
 in contact with Monsieur La Birch. Indeed it put us in mind 
 of the urchin mentioned by Gil Bias, who was educated witii a 
 young Prince, whom the master had orders not to strike or 
 correct, while the poor concomitant of his studies got his own 
 share of correction to the full amount, and what the young 
 Prince ought to have received with an interest bordering on 
 usury. 
 
 How these things will end we cannot sav, but although we 
 fear it, we trust not badly. One of the signs of the zodiac, 
 Ursa Major , has disappeared ; Scorpio , from the signs of the 
 times, will soon follow his example, for “ forthcoming events 
 casts their shadows before them,” and Capricornus will, I trust, 
 be confined to the boundai ies of his own Parish to perform his 
 evolutions and revolutions there. I think if there was an 
 overseer or superintendant placed over him, and if he was 
 necessitated to account for a certain portion of his theological 
 treatises, monthly, he would not cause so much confusion in 
 the Capital of Nova Scotia as he does, with what St. Paul 
 would call <c Old Wive’s Fables,” but what we term, in more 
 familiar phrase, c< Miss Molly-like conversations.” 
 
 u What is well' begun is fully half done.”—All is well that 
 ends well;” and I trust that the Bishops, Priests and people 
 of Nova Scotia will look to the state of ecclessiastic affairs in 
 time, and before it is too late, and support their own dignity 
 —the dignity and independence of the Church—the continu¬ 
 ation of the College under wise and experienced superiors— 
 and, above all things, we wish that precautions will be taken 
 
with the great orator of the day, to prevent his becoming as 
 great a disgrace to religion as his friend and namesake was to 
 human nature. 
 
 Yours, 5cc. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 The universal attachment of Scotchmen to their 
 religion and country, and the recklessness of life they betray 
 when either seems to be in danger, will create, no dcJnbl, sym¬ 
 pathies for others similarly devoted to their father-land, and 
 the ancient faith of their fathers, and procure insertion for 
 this letter in your valuable, praiseworthy, and independent 
 spirited public journal—an indulgence so often already expe¬ 
 rienced, and I trust not too much trespassed upon. In view¬ 
 ing the history of my country I think the most unrelenting 
 and frozen-hearted would be thawed into compunction, and 
 be induced to shed a tear over the wretched portrait of cala¬ 
 mity, misery, and distress it presents to his view. 
 
 Before the coming of the English among us, Ireland was 
 divided into five small kingdoms, each having its own petty 
 king, who constantly warred with each other, and filled the 
 country with devastation and bloodshed. So true is this fact, 
 that about one thousand Englishmen, well armed, arriving in 
 the harbor of Waterford, A. D. 1171, soon made themselves 
 /toasters of the entire kingdom, without any apparent disposi¬ 
 tion to resistance on the part of the inhabitants, and then and 
 there established the iron yoke of their authority which from 
 that day to this the Irish have never been able to shake off, 
 —how'ever much they may bluster about their indomitable 
 courage on the field of battle, and much boasted of intrepidity 
 in the midst of the fight, so beautifully portrayed and brought 
 almost under our own eyes in a neighboring city, by the 
 undaunted valour displayed by the descendants of these great 
 men in the noble attempt of ejecting from his episcopal throne 
 the rneek and truly apostolical Bishop of the Diocese, for no 
 
86 
 
 othercause than that he is a Scotchman and not an English¬ 
 man by birth ! 
 
 No doubt but the thrones of Ireland were occasionally filled 
 by men as eminent for their sanctity as others were for their 
 profligacy and vice, and this fact can be ascertained from the 
 circumstances which led to the invasion and subsequent sub¬ 
 jugation of that country.—Tiernagh O’Rourke, King of Wes¬ 
 tern Breifne, absented himself from his home on a pilgrimage 
 to Lough Dearg, while Murtagh RTMurragh, King of Lein¬ 
 ster, taking advantage of his absence, eloped with his Queen. 
 The other Kings having come to the resolution to be avenged 
 of the insult offered to royalty by his adulterous conduct, 
 determined to engage with him on the embattled plain, and to 
 make him, by a forfeiture of bis crown and kingdom, to atone 
 for his profligate conduct. He betakes himself to England— 
 thence to CaeD, in Normandy, where Henry the Second was 
 himself in person carrying on a war against the French, and on 
 condition of receiving aid from him to be avenged of his brother 
 Kings, lays his crown and kingdom prostrate at his feet ; and 
 to this event, and no other, is to be attributed the subjuga¬ 
 tion of Ireland to British rule, or misrule. 
 
 It is then evident, from this sketch, that Ireland was the 
 victim of sorrow and affliction, of civil wars and discord, 
 before the coming of the English; and it is equally true, and 
 must be admitted, that the sceptres of her Kings were as 
 oftentimes wielded by the hands of wicked and flagitious men 
 as by those of good and virtuous monarchs. 
 
 If Ireland was wretched before the coming of the English, 
 her wretchedness became a hundred-fold greater on their arri¬ 
 val amongst us. National prejudices were carried on to the 
 highest pitch of excitement, and they terminated in prosetib- 
 ing the manners, language, customs and dress of the ancient 
 Irish, and forbid them to be used under the severest panalties, 
 as may be judged from the following statutes passed during 
 the reigns of Edward the Third and Henry the Sixth. The 
 following was passed A. D. 1367, at Kilkenny, which makes 
 4< all alliance by marriage, nurture of infants, or gossipred, 
 with the Irish^’ high treason : “ And if any man of English 
 race shall use an Irish name, Irish language, or Irish apparel, 
 or any other guise or fashion of the Irish, if he have lands or 
 tenements, the same shall be seized till he has given security 
 to the Chancellor to conform in all points to the English man¬ 
 ner of living ; and if he has no lands or tenements, his body 
 to be taken and imprisoned until he find sureties as aforesaid.” 
 The second statute that I quote is taken from the statutes 
 
S7 
 
 formed in the Parliament held at Trim, A. D. 1447, and enacts 
 
 That il any man be found with their upper lips unshaven for 
 the space of a fortnight, it shall he lawful for any man to take 
 them and their goods, and ransom them and their goods, as 
 Irish enemies.” Il an Englishman chance to kill a mere Irish¬ 
 man, he had only to pay two-and-sixpence and he was par¬ 
 doned, because the deceased was a mere Irishman, and not of 
 free blood; and to this degrading and blood-tinged statute, 
 which was in existence even in the days of James the First, 
 of England, the Bard of Irish wrong alluding, thus expresses 
 himself— 
 
 11 0 had*st thou lived when every Saxon clown 
 First stabbed his foe—then paid half a crown ; 
 
 With such a choice in thy well balanced scale. 
 
 Say, would thy avarice or thy spite prevail?” 
 
 These dissensions eventually produced,as might be expected, 
 the greatest wretchedness in Ireland, and well might we ex¬ 
 claim, in the prophetic language of inspiration, speaking of her 
 indescribable woes—“ With desolation is she made desolate.” 
 An English writer who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth, 
 by name Raphael Hollingsbead, adds his testimony to the 
 above sad recital of her woes— <c Land itself which, before the 
 wars (of Chieftain rivalry) was populous, well inhabited, and 
 rich in all the blessings of God—being plenteous of corn, full 
 of cattle, well stored with fruit, and sundry other good com¬ 
 modities, is now become waste and barren—yielding no fruit, 
 the pastures nd cattle, the fields no corn, the air no birds, the 
 seas—though full of fish—yet to them yielding nothing; finally, 
 every way the curse of God was so great, and the land so bar¬ 
 ren, both of man and beast, that whosoever did travel from 
 one end unto the other of all Munster—even from Waterford 
 to the heart of Limerick, which is about six score miles—he 
 should not meet any man, woman, or child, saving in towns or 
 cities, nor yet see a beast but the very wolves, the foxes, and 
 all other like ravenous beasts.” 
 
 And all these disasters have befallen Ireland long before the 
 Reformation, when Ireland and England were Catholic, and 
 professed the same religion in common with each other—just 
 as the Scotch Catholics in Nova Scotia with the Irish, whom 
 the latter, now residing in the capital, so unjustly and ungene- 
 nerously wish to persecute, and to realize by their conduct the 
 scene that is recorded of a colored man in the States, who 
 having been well cowhided in the morning for some trifling 
 indiscretion, was determined to be avenged, not of his master 
 
hi propria sua persona, but at least of his property, in the 
 shape of oxen, which he belabored to a shocking degree, 
 exclaiming, “ Massa cowhided me this morning and I will 
 cowhide you now, when Massa does not see me.” 
 
 The Irish white slaves newly made free in the Capital of 
 Nova Scotia, having been well lashed for centuries by their 
 English masters, wish now to have revenge, not on their 
 quondam slave drivers, (such a thought w'ould not presume to 
 approach the back-doors of their noddles,) but on their inoffen¬ 
 sive Scotch neighbors, whom they would gladly treat as Sambo 
 treated the oxen, bad they not exhibited the noli me iangere 
 of Scotch independanee and bravery on their horns, and made 
 the poor Ilibernico Catholico white slaves run as they often 
 made to run before their Massas Englishmen with frightful 
 precipitation, shameful discomfiture and loss of life; and hav¬ 
 ing cleared the fields of many a cowardly and talkative anta¬ 
 gonist, they only exclaim, “ Deprive the vulture of his feast 
 and no wonder he screams.” 
 
 Poor things !—what a pity ! What a scourge do they not 
 put into the hands of their enemies to lash themselves with at 
 a future period ? What a retorqueo argumenlum do they not 
 afford their English rulers, should they at any future period 
 protest against the cruelties of their severe step-dame, Ma¬ 
 dame Saxonia.—“ We do not treat you worse or half so badly 
 as you thought to treat the Scotch Catholics of your ow n race 
 and creed in Nova Scotia, and which you would have effected 
 if they permitted you, and had not threatened you w ith the 
 length of that ticklesome, delicately constructed little instru¬ 
 ment, a Scotch Bayonet, and made you run like fury, although 
 you were the first to commence the attack, by insulting their 
 religion, language and country, in the person of their high- 
 minded and illustrious Bishop, a Scotchman, and whose spirit¬ 
 ual jurisdiction you repudiated for no other cause but that he 
 was a Scotchman ; although you never refused to obey Eng¬ 
 lish Bishops either before or at the time of the Reformation, 
 for the good reason, no doubt, that it might endanger the 
 forfeiture of your goods and chattels—nay, of your very lives 
 —on which, no blame to you, you set no trifling valuation. 
 Yes, you were the first to enter the field of religious strife and 
 dissention, and to display a feeling of— 
 
 Disdainful, disgusting, domineering sway— 
 
 r l'he first to bluster, boast, and run away! 
 
 Indeed, if Nature’s first law'—self-preservation—had no effect 
 
S9 
 
 on you, yc*i must have read or heard to practical advantage, 
 the trite old saying so oftentimes repeated on simils r occasions 
 and read in Butler’s Hadibras — 
 
 “ He who fights and runs away, 
 
 Will live to fight another day— 
 
 But he who fights until he’s slain 
 Will never Jive to fight again.” 
 
 AH the Irish antagonists of the Scottish race in the Capital 
 of Nova Scotia, on the authority of a Mr. c< Veritas,’ 7 in an 
 epistle to be 9een in the Acadian Recorder of February 2G, 
 1842, have grounded their arms and ran away, leaving a few 
 veterans of the average number of fifty to contest in the field 
 men of first rate pot-walioping, bottle-draining notoriety, if 
 not of warlike celebrity, and of whom I am sure it could not 
 be said in their old age—having failed to obtain the darling 
 object of their ambition, the rescuing the mitre from the brow 
 of a Scotch Bishop and placing it on the head of one of their 
 own dear countrymen,—what the Poet said of the old race¬ 
 horses who had born many a tankard from the racing plain, 
 before old age had taken possession of their once swift limbs 
 and stayed their course like lightning—. 
 
 11 These fiery steeds who ran with speed, 
 
 And, running far the best, 
 
 Did win the prize, and now they lie, 
 
 Through old age forced to rest.” 
 
 Ireland, then, was unfortunate and wretched before the 
 invasion of the English, and after the invasion of the English, 
 before the Reformation. After the Reformation men were no 
 longer persecuted on account of the shape or form of their 
 clothes, the length or shortness of their beards, the peculiar 
 intonation of their language, or for being mere Irish. The 
 peculiar tenets of their faith, and their attachment to the 
 ancient creed of their fathers afforded sufficient matter for the 
 exercise of the most exquisite tortures of the moral and physical 
 man that the demon of religious discord could suggest—the 
 most hateful and baneful monster to the human race that 
 could take possession of the heart of man, let-that man be a 
 Catholic or a Protestant, a Turk, a Jew, an Atheist, a Pagan, 
 or a Deist, and the most inimicable to the principles of our 
 holv religion and the doctrines of Him who said, “ Love your 
 enemies/ 7 &.c. and who most forcibly inculcated by word and 
 example, from Iho pulpit of the cross, the practice of Mis doc¬ 
 trine, exclaiming, in behalf of those who crucified him, to his 
 
 M 
 
90 
 
 Eternal Father, “ O Father forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do.” Were I only to give an epitome of the sor¬ 
 row® inflicted on the Irish people for the course of the last 
 three hundred years, I should swell large volumes—I should 
 rummage old records, statute books, state papers, official 
 reports, charters, and title deeds—for on this occasion it may 
 be truly said the law best discovers the enormities: were I 
 to do so, I should dip my pen in human blood, and dapple the 
 pages of my historical narrative with Christian gore. I could 
 point out to you statutes passed to justify the violation of 
 parental affection, filial duty, conjugal love, the prevention of 
 education, the proscription of industry, the acquirement of 
 wealth, &c. I could show you not only bills of discovery 
 which insured the forfeiture of estates—acts of recusancy 
 which punished with large fines those who would not frequent 
 the Church of England—Gavel acts enabling the son to take 
 possession of his father's property, on conforming to the Reli¬ 
 gion of the State, &c. I could point out to you racks, gibbets, 
 and places of execution supplied with victims from the highest 
 to the lowest grades of life—from the humble peasant to the 
 mitred Prelate. I could shew you them, on the authority of 
 the historians Leland and Spencer, creeping forth on their 
 hands—their legs not being able to bear them—out of the cor¬ 
 ners of woods and glens, looking like anatomies of Death, 
 speaking like ghosts crying out of their graves, feasting on 
 water-cresses and shamrocks as if on the most delicious food; 
 their miseries were so great as even to affect their enemies, 
 ruthless as they were ; to say nothing of the youths, who in 
 thousands were captured on the authority of Petty, Lynch, 
 Thuriow, IJenery, Cromwell, &c. and sent to Jamaica to be 
 sold as slaves, and other enormities which we ourselves have 
 witnessed, too lengthened for a document of this description. 
 And such was the fate of Ireland for, I might say, the last 
 three hundred years ; when the ark of the ancient faith of 
 Ireland, after being so long tossed on the troubled waters of 
 persecution, was tow r ed into the haven of Liberty, and inde¬ 
 pendence by the powerful arms and gigantic exertions of that 
 great man, Ireland’s pride and the glory of mankind, as well 
 as the liberator of his country, Daniel O’Connell. 
 
 During I his period let me remark that Irish Catholics were 
 three times in power, and never persecuted. In the days of 
 Queen Mary they received fugitive English Protestants with 
 a cead mille falthe or a hundred thousand welcomes of Irish hos¬ 
 pitality, and in Dublin alone opened thirty eight houses to 
 entertain and support them On the suppression of the 
 
91 
 
 ancient faith by law the ancient Bealhalhces , or houses of hos¬ 
 pitality were suppressed, and the huts and cabins of the poor 
 people—of their own accord and of their own free will—substi¬ 
 tuted in their places. In the hills and mountains they sup¬ 
 ported the ancient faith, and clung to its pastors, who in return 
 consoled them in their afflictions, and animated them to per¬ 
 severance in its profession, from the anticipated reward of a 
 blessed immortality. Indeed the pastors and the flock gave, 
 by acts as well as words, the true difinition of a Christian 
 congregation —Pastor gregi suo addictus ) ct grcx pastori sno 
 addictus —A Pastor attached to his flock, and the flock attach¬ 
 ed to their Pastor. 
 
 The Irish were glad to pay large sums, and the tithe of ai! 
 their property, as they do to this day, to Ministers of an ini¬ 
 mical creed, to be permitted to enjoy their own peace, and to 
 have the free exercise of their own religion. How then must 
 it not fret the true-born Irishman—attached to his ancient 
 creed and country, and proud of his descent from a race of 
 Christian heroes—to see men calling themselves Irishmen and 
 Irish Catholics, forgetting not, in the praiseworthy spirit of 
 Christian charity, the injuries they suffered in the persons of 
 their forefathers, but in the indulgence of antichristian hate 
 and malice : endeavoring to pawn themselves on the good peo¬ 
 ple of Nova Scotia as the descendants of great men whose 
 fathers were born free in tbe old country, (the reverse being 
 the fact,) and insulting the hoary-headed Prelate of their own 
 creed because, indeed, he does not come up to their ideas on 
 the subject of episcopal jurisdiction and religious perfection, 
 and deal out to their satisfaction a copious abundance of nightly 
 Canticles, Vesper Hymns, and Evening Songs—terms innova¬ 
 tory in themselves, and abhorrent to the ears of Catholic 
 orthodoxy, and never heard of until we came into this new 
 country. 
 
 When we see men insulting what our forefathers revered 
 and cherished in the hills and mountains of Ireland, and not 
 only despising the ancient usages and rites of hospitality, as 
 practised by our ancestors, but persecuting their ancient faith, 
 is it a wonder that we should endeavour to lower their pride, 
 by reminding them of gone-by days, and pointing out to them 
 the lash of the torture—to humiliate them a little in the pre¬ 
 sence of their dissenting brethren, whose deridings and scof¬ 
 fing, on their own acknowledgement, they dread so much to 
 become the laughing stocks or butts of laughter to? (See Re¬ 
 port of the Committee of St. Mary’s, page 22.) 
 
[)2 
 
 Let no one attribute to bigotry or intolerance this effusion 
 of a heart teeming with bitter ness at the despicable conduct of 
 men who should have known better tilings and ambitioned 
 higher honors than that of being the first schismatics from the 
 Catholic Church in the Capital of Nova Scotia. The heart- 
 scaldings and heart-burnings their wicked conduct has created 
 will never be forgotten by the well affected members of l-he 
 Catholic Church of this Province. 
 
 But some of them will say, “ If we had an Irish Bishop we 
 would love and respect him If you had an Knglish Bishop 
 you would love and respect him as your ancestors did before, 
 and you would not dare to disobey him. for fear would not let 
 you. Was not Doctor Hughes, of Gibraltar, an Irishman? 
 Did not your brother Junta—the Junta of Gibraltar, composed 
 of Irish Catholics—drag him from the altar of the living God 
 and lodge him in Gaol, making him exchange the vestment of 
 a High Priest of the living God for the chains of the felon and 
 ruthless violator of the laws of his country ? Has not another 
 brother Junta of yours insulted and persecuted Doctor Hughes 
 of New'York for combatting the adversaries of his creed and 
 country on the subject of education ? 
 
 Were l discussing this question with high-minded and enlight¬ 
 ened Irishmen, I would shew them from the page of history 
 that Doctor Fraser is of the same race a9 Ourselves *, I would 
 point out the lives of Reutha and Reulherus, Kings of Scot¬ 
 land, who lived about one hundred and fifty years before the 
 birth of Christ, sending for Irishmen to people their dominions. 
 I would shew them how Fergus the son of Ferquhaid, King 
 of Ireland, was demanded as.their King,^because of our race 
 and blood; and by the Gaelic language itself that we are des¬ 
 cended from the same royal forefathers—the Hebrides, beir>g 
 so called from Heber the son of Gathelas, and the language 
 Gaelic, a word corrupted from Gathelas the son of Cecrops, 
 King of Athens, who was father of Gathelas the father ot 
 Heber and Milesius, from whom the ancient Irish claim 
 their title of Milesians or Milesian Irish. I would tell them 
 how he loved the Irish and of the high tone of panegyrick that 
 he used in extolling them from the altar—publicly avowing that 
 it is to the zeal and indefatigable exertions of Irish Priests that 
 Scotchmen are indebted for the preservation of r the ancient 
 faith. In society he delights in pointing out the similarity of 
 manners, language, and customs that exists between 
 the two nations; and so convinced are all the lush Priests— 
 with one or two exceptions—and numbers of the people of this 
 truth that they would gladly make rampaits of their dead 
 
S3 
 
 bodies, if necessary, to defend the life, or what is dearer to 
 them, the honor and character of Bishop Fraser. 
 
 To those persons who assembled to hear the valedictory 
 address of the leader of this crusade against the Bishop’s 
 authority, and whose ridiculous conduct on the occasion has 
 furnished a subject of mirth and laughter to the most cynical 
 of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, I would say, if you had 
 transgressed equally much against the laws of the land in the 
 old country as you have here against the laws of God and of 
 his Church, what do you think would befall you? In my 
 humble opinion you would be obliged to hear a v*ery comfort¬ 
 able discourse from a gentleman wearing a very big wig, ter¬ 
 minating with the following words—which conclude with a 
 very short but fervent prayer—“ You will be brought from 
 this to the place from whence you came, and from thence to 
 the place called the gallows, where, your irons being struck 
 off, you shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and 
 may the Lord have mercy on your soul V 9 And if you had 
 treated a Church of England Bishop with one half the inso¬ 
 lence you have treated your own Bishop, I am much mistaken 
 if you would not make reparation for the offence walking 
 behind the tail of a cart, proclaiming in rather audible, altho’ 
 not very euphonious language, your sorrow and repentance for 
 the act which brought your nudated back and the cat-with- 
 nine-tails in such close connection. Would not a Bishop at 
 home excommunicate you for one half of what you have done 
 to Bishop Fraser. Repent then in time, and pray to God to 
 forgive you and the iron-hearted monsters who seduced you 
 to despise Jesus Christ in the person of his validly consecrated 
 and lawfully ordained apostle. 
 
 To some of the members of the Committee on whose names 
 I have dropped a melancholy tear—for I believe them to be 
 good men though deluded—I would say, withdraw your names 
 from that Committee; do you not see them surrounded by 
 I hose of men who never frequent the sacraments — who despise 
 the nuptial benediction of the Catholic Church, and who do 
 not observe at the baptism of their children the prescribed 
 usages and forms of the Roman ritual. One of these persons, 
 a ringleader in this business, has particularly attracted the 
 notice of the writer; he w as formerly a poor lazy mechanic or 
 Clerk, and is now a full bred gentleman at large, in consequence 
 of bewitching a widow, or finding a rich widow bewitched, 
 who married him. The first thought that must strike the 
 mind of a stranger on beholding him is to guard his pockets, 
 and if he had ever been in any of the large cities on the con- 
 
94 
 
 tinent of Europe, he will glance at his legs to see does he 
 wear a red stocking—the characteristic badge of the execu¬ 
 tioner or hangman in these countries. To have your names 
 associated with such men can add little to your honor or 
 reputation, and a wicked, sacriligeous work of this kind must 
 bring on you and your posterity the malediction of God. 
 Come out then of this wicked society, retrace your footsteps 
 to the path you have deserted, and induce as many as you can 
 to follow your example. Shed salt tears of repentance for 
 what you have done constantly by day and by night, exclaim¬ 
 ing, in the language of the royal Psalmist, “ Remember not, 
 O Lord, our offences, neither take thou revenge of our sins,” 
 and thus avert those judgments of Heaven in this new hemis¬ 
 phere, which in the old, before the invasion of the English, 
 and after their invasion before the Reformation, and after the 
 Reformation doomed us to be, as I have just demonstrated to 
 you, the most wretched people on the face of the globe. 
 
 That the unfortunate people alluded to may profit by this 
 advice in time and eternity is the sincere wish of their friend 
 aud 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
 Sir,— 
 
 Give me leave to return you my most sincere 
 and grateful acknowledgements for the generous and noble- 
 hearted impulse that induced you to publish, in your truly 
 independent and patriotic journal the letters of Hibernicus— 
 as nothing but a love of his native country and of the ancient 
 religion of his forefathers could have prompted him to take up 
 his pen in defence of the sacred institutions of the Church, 
 which he saw last year outraged in the conduct of the Gibral¬ 
 tar Junta Catholics to their venerable Bishop Hughes, whom 
 they thought to deprive of his diocese by dragging him from 
 the altar in the temple of the living God to the dungeon in the 
 Den of Thieves, and this year attempted to be effected here 
 
95 
 
 by an almost concealed conspiracy against the venerable 
 Catholic Bishop of Nova Scotia, whom my unreflecting and 
 misguided countrymen thought to deprive of bis legitimate 
 episcopal rights as Bishop of this Diocese. 
 
 It gives me particular delight to think thatan opportunity was 
 given me of exhibiting to public light the character of one of 
 your countrymen, whose disinterested acts of benevolence, 
 and splendid literary acquirements, render him an honor not 
 only to human nature and his high profession, but to the land 
 of his birth, your native country, in the highland mountains 
 of Scotland. 
 
 A superficial reader may consider Hibernicus an enemy to 
 old Ireland, but he is far from it. From the admission of certain 
 facts he drew conclusions as if he were the enemy of Ireland, 
 and which were the natural consequences to be deduced from 
 the admission of such premises. Although the enemies of 
 Ireland might seem to give little credit to the Catholics for 
 their obedience to English Bishops from the words of Hiber- 
 nicus who, speaking iu their language, would attribute it to 
 the iron rod of despotism, he now comes forward and say9 his 
 countryman obeyed the English Bishops not from fear or the 
 consequence of their promotion through court influence, but 
 because appointed and confirmed by the Pope. Our fore¬ 
 fathers obeyed Doctors George Brown and Hugh Curwin, 
 who conformed at the time of the Reformation, because 
 appointed by the Pope through court favor not more than they 
 obeyed their successor, Doctor Mathieu D’Oviedo, a Spaniard 
 by birth, appointed without the consent or approbation of the 
 English court. 
 
 Hibernicus, in shewing that Scotland was an independent 
 nation since the foundation of her monarchy, while Ireland 
 lost hers through the base treachery of one of her adulterous 
 but royal sons, wished to say no more than that, on princi¬ 
 ples of great national independence, the Irish here could not 
 spurn a Scotch Bishop or attempt to deprive him of his epis¬ 
 copal rights on the principles of Christian charity, and an 
 observance of the examples of the apostles, generally stran¬ 
 gers in the country, they preached the faith, and of ecclessias- 
 tical discipline and the canons of the Church, such conduct is 
 not only unjustifiable, but without precedency even in a single 
 instance, to bear it out. The admission of it here in a particular 
 case, as worthy of adoption and of imitation in ail Ireland, 
 would justify the E^ngiish at home to exclaim, u We differ 
 from the Irish in matters of religion, let us dread them should 
 they get the upper hand of us and should we not still be able 
 
96 
 
 to keep them down, that they should not treat us equally as 
 bad, if not worse than they thought to treat the Scotch Ca¬ 
 tholics in Nova Scotia—Scotch by birth or of Scottish extrac¬ 
 tion—although professing the same creed in common with 
 themselves, and not differing with them, as we do, as to their 
 religious creed or the tenets of their faith, and thus inflict a 
 deadly wound on the dearest interests of our suffering fellow- 
 eountrymen—our nearest and dearest friends and kinsfolk in 
 the old country.” 
 
 Hjbernicus loves and cherishes bis native land, and hates 
 and execrates such deeds as would bring disgrace either on it 
 or his ancient religion. Would any Irishman with one drop of 
 real Irish Catholic blood running in his veins justify the abomi¬ 
 nable treatment of the Gibraltar Junta Catholics to their 
 Bishop last year? Not one could be found who would not 
 execrate the infamous and villainous act. The unfortunate 
 schismatics of Nova Scotia has been worse than that of the 
 schismatical faction in Gibraltar, If we can place any reliance 
 on the truth contained in these words— 
 
 “ An open foe he is a curse, 
 
 But a concealed one is worse .” 
 
 The former thought by force to deprive the Bishop of his 
 mitre, the latter endeavoured to do it by stealth : first to rob 
 the Bishop of his character, dearer to him than life, and sub¬ 
 sequently of his episcopal jurisdiction, by an easy additional 
 process of persecution. Will any Irishman worthy of the 
 name, justify such conduct or say it is worthy of Irishmen 7 
 Will they reprobate and condemn the man who has raised his 
 voice with manly independence to execrate such conduct as 
 unworthy of Irishmen and of Irish Roman Catholics? Will 
 Irishmen be found to say that such a man should be gibbetted 
 as to his character in the public journals, and held out as an 
 object of detestation to his countrymen? If they say so, and 
 if such are the sentiments of the wise, the learned, and the 
 great in his own country—although he cherishes the clay, and 
 the memory of the bones mouldering into dust in the land that 
 gave him birth—he would exclaim, “ I am no Irishman—I 
 disown it as the land of my birth—the place of my nativ¬ 
 ity.’ ’ 
 
 The Schismatics are angry with Hfbernicus, and determined 
 to vent their rage and fury if not on his arguments, at least on 
 his personal character. They have sworn hostilities to him/ 
 even to the death; and among the most implacable of his 
 
$>7 
 
 enemies arc to be found some of the poor folk or dependants' 
 on their rich relatives, who, w ith the menial subserviency usual 
 to such characters, whenever the honor of their rich friends 
 ate called into question, follow out their designs to the last 
 point to satisfy the least manifestation of their will and plea¬ 
 sure, and thus try to secure for themselves not only the honor 
 of being admitted as members of the wealthy family, but also 
 as their best friends and supporters in the day of peril and 
 hostility. They boldly assert that they will eat the live fleshr 
 off his bones—that they will undermine the force of his argu¬ 
 ments, not by arguments but by holding up to view his hitherto 
 most wicked and abominable character ! They endeavour to 
 convince the poor Irish Catholics that Hibernicus called them 
 all Schismnticks, and that the words “ Schismaticks in the 
 Capital of Nova Scotia,” signifies all the Catholics of Nova 
 Scotia. This is the most extraordinary perversion of words 
 of their sense and meaning I ever heard of. The faithful 
 Irish Catholics, true to their Bishop and Pastors and to the 
 honor of their native land, (and among them let me number 
 the Sydney c< Irish Catholic,” and the noble and high-minded 
 Irish Catholics of the Counties ot‘ Pictou, Colchester, and 
 Cumberland,) commend in the highest terms that language 
 will admit of the conduct of Hibernicus, and declare him to 
 be a man of honor—of strict integrity of character—alive 
 equally to his interests of his ancient religion and country, 
 and defy all the enemies to alter their sentiments on this head, 
 and they turn with disgust from the person who would impute 
 to him unworthy motives in the line of conduct be has chosen 
 on this occasion to adopt. 
 
 Manv Protestants of the highest rank in the neighbourhood 
 of Pictou have asked Hibernicus was it possible that the 
 Pope could remove the Bishop; and whether a remonstrance 
 from them would have any weight with the Pope? Hibernicus 
 answers them and tells them that it is morally impossible.— 
 n The Pope must be governed by the canons and decrees of 
 the Church,” says Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, in his sermon 
 on the unity of the Church, “ to prevent him of becoming, 
 through the infirmities of human nature, a whimsical and capii- 
 cious tyrant.” Now, on the authority of this great Prelate of 
 the Catholic Church, the Pope himself cannot remove the 
 Bishoo without a cause—the violation of some of the canons 
 of the Church or of its discipline. No such charge can be* 
 brought against Doctor Fraser, therefore, on the authority 
 of Bossuet, he cannot be deposed even by the Pope himself. 
 No* only that, but if Bishop Fraser wished for a coadjutor 
 
98 
 
 Bishop, he would get the person of his own choice to asMst 
 him during his life-time.—Were he to have bim appointed 
 with future succession, he would have only to call on his 
 clergy and six out of seven would vote for the object of his 
 choice ; in fact, such is their opinion of him, they would leave 
 it all to his own decision. Laymen would have nothing to do 
 in the affair at all, not one of them would be consulted on the 
 occason. And if traders and mechanics wish to make Bishops 
 of themselves they must go out of our church before they can 
 do so, or exclaim with any degree of the plausibility of truth 
 on their side — 
 
 44 What Church has got such able pastors, 
 
 And precious, powerful preaching masters, 
 
 Possessed with absolute dominion 
 O’er brethren, purses, and opinions— 
 
 And trusted with the double keys— 
 
 Of Heaven and their warehouses?” 
 
 The remonstrance to the Pope would be treated by bim with 
 the greatest respect and attention, and, no doubt would be 
 replied to by him in a manner worthy his high station in (he 
 Catholic Church and of the generous and noble-hearted disin¬ 
 terestedness that prompted such an appeal to his high autho¬ 
 rity in such matters. I am sure that the Pope’s reply to the 
 address would be accompanied with presents expressive of his 
 good will, as he is wont to do on such occasions. 
 
 On good authority I can inform you that almost all the 
 Schismaticks have returned to the fold they had deserted, and 
 are very great penitents. — I trust that (iod will forgive them 
 and pardon them their late unfortunate misdoings. A few 
 only hold out and exhibit symptoms of an ineurable sehisma- 
 tical leprosy. Like the fox, who came unawares on the wolf 
 as he was reproaching him to the sick lion for his ingratitude 
 in not coming to see his sick majesty, and who apologised for 
 his absence in terms most acceptable to his majesty the King 
 of Beasts, but most terrific to the wolf— u I was absent from 
 necessity,” said Reynard, 44 seeking a cure for your majesty^, 
 and some of the best physicians I have met with are of opinion 
 that nothing can effect so speedy and efficacious a cure as a 
 piece of the skin of a wolf taken hot off his back and applied 
 to your majesty’s chest ; M —nothing can cure, in the opinion 
 of some of the most skilful physicians in the Capital of Nova 
 Scotia, the distemper of these delirious and almost incurable 
 maniacs but a piece of the flesh taken off the backbone of the 
 reputation of Htbernicus, or a cup-full of the blood of his 
 
99 
 
 character, wail seasoned with the venom of asp* and the poi¬ 
 son of serpents, taken three mornings fasting; and if this does 
 not effect a cure, their case is hopeless and without a remedy. 
 An existence to such distempers, however, will be soon put an 
 end to by the interference of the Court of Rome with the 
 Court of England, or Hibernicus is much mistaken. 
 
 L,et the Pastors keep the rich would-be-ecclessiastical cor¬ 
 morants in their place, and give them no authority in Church 
 matters, and cling to the poor—recollecting that, like their 
 Divine Master, they are sent to preach the gospel to the poor 
 —and the God of the poor, and of the gospel of the poor will 
 protect them and support them, and send them aid in seasona¬ 
 ble time; while the poor wiil reflect that their religion is not a 
 human institution, and the Holy Spirit that has selected the 
 Bishop for the work of an Apostle, and descended upon him, 
 will guide them in the way to eternal salvation in despite of 
 all the powers of the Evil One, Tvhether he chooses to make 
 his appearance in the shape of the would-be indomitable and 
 insurmountable aristocracy or their sycophantic lickspittles, in 
 the form of poor relatives and dependants. 
 
 And now, before I conclude my last correspondence on this 
 subject, let me renew my sentiments of gratitude for the favor 
 you have done me in publishing my letters, and to return you 
 my sincere and heartfelt acknowledgements for the favors and 
 kindnesses experienced at your hands since I had the honor of 
 your acquaintance, and to assure you that I never with more 
 heartfelt emotion and enthusiastic devotion to my country 
 subscribed myself your obedient and humble servant than 
 ^hen—I trust for the last time on this occasion—I write 
 
 lours, Ac. 
 
 HIBERNICUS. 
 
101 
 
 APPEAL OF “ H1BERNICUS ” TO THE IRISH 
 CATHOLICS OF NOVA-SCOTIA. 
 
 Tub following Appeal of Hiberxiccs to his country¬ 
 men is intended to awaken them to the laudable object 
 bo has had in view in addressing to them so many letters 
 and to convince them that ho is no enemy to either their 
 ancient Religion or Country, as some persons have been 
 pleased to describe him, bat that he can, with truth and 
 justice, subscribe himself a true-born Irishman, faithful to 
 his ancient creed and country, in one word—a real 
 Hibcrnicu4. 
 
 Beloved Countrymen,— 
 
 In making the following Appeal to you through 
 the medium of the Public Press*, let me entreat of. you to 
 accept it in the spirit in which it has been written, and—above 
 all things—to lay aside all selfish notions and long-cherished 
 national prejudices, which may prevent it of producing the 
 good fruits for which it is intended. The chief object of it is 
 to recal to your minds the love you bore to your ancient religion 
 in the old country, to its clergy, its friends and benefactors of 
 all religious denominations, and the hatred and contempt you 
 manifested to its enemies—to those who would injure or speak 
 ill of the Priesthood of your ancient and venerable hierarchy, 
 or its treasures, the poor—in the words of St. Lawrence, the 
 Levite, who, on the day of his martyrdom, when called upon 
 to give up the treasures of the Church, he invited all the poor 
 around him, the widows and the orphans, and exclaimed, 
 41 These are the treasures of the Church . 99 
 
10 * 
 
 The writer of these lines remembers well the love you mani¬ 
 fested on all occasions to the good old families in the old 
 country who fostered and protected the poor—how you gave 
 them the endearing name of the good old stock, and if any of 
 them did a kindly act, how you used to express yourselves in 
 his regard— u Kind father for him—his father was good, his 
 mother was good, and all who went before him,” &,c. and 
 should any of the members of these ancient families depart 
 this life he has witnessed thousands of the people accompany¬ 
 ing their remains to the grave* filling the air with bitter lamen¬ 
 tations, and each bewailing his loss as that of the nearest and 
 dearest relation. He also recollects the contempt you enter¬ 
 tained for those families who persecuted the poor—who 
 unroofed their hovels, and how you termed them “ land 
 sharks,” aru] tA land pirates;” anJ you abhorred the persecu¬ 
 tors of the clergy of your church, a-nd those persons who 
 received private service money—commonly called “ blood 
 money”—for first decoying into illegal associations your unsus¬ 
 pecting countrymen, and then betraying them into the hands 
 of their enemies, who executed them without mercy. 
 
 How do not the friends of Ireland weep over the conduct of 
 your countrymen, who so lately as last year imprisoned their 
 sain ted Bishop Hughes* for not making Simoniacal exactions 
 which the poor people could not pay, and this year to attempt 
 to deprive of his episcopal jurisdiction one of the best of living 
 men, the Catholic Bishop of this Diocese, for no other excuse 
 but that he is a Scotchman by birth, speaking an idiom of our 
 ancient language, and a descendant of the same ancient royal 
 race as ourselves. 
 
 Were either English or Scotch Protestants guilty of such 
 an act—and far from them in those days of civil and religious 
 freedom and enlightenment the harboring such a thought—we 
 would never hear the eDdof it; but, because it has been com¬ 
 mitted by Irishmen and their descendants, the poor Irish think 
 they can conceal it from the wide world’s gaze; and that 
 because they make a feeble effort to hide it from public view 
 —like the owl, who cannot see by day, when he gets his head 
 into a dark corner imagine he is hidden from all the world— 
 they consider the affair entirely cloaked and put under cover. 
 Nay, not only that, but should any one speak of these trans¬ 
 actions, they all (save and except the high-minded Catholic 
 Irishmen of the Counties of Pictou, Colchester and Cumber- 
 land,) consider him the greatest enemy to their religion and 
 country that ever existed; and should any man take up his pen 
 and shew the consequences to be deduced from their reasonings 
 
103 
 
 aiid moJe of proceedings from historical facts and records, 
 they denounce him as an object of their hatred and contempt. 
 They will not admit that Ireland ever produced a bad man; 
 and should you assert that the best of Scotchmen was superior 
 in piety and humanity to Lord Norbufy, of blood-stained me¬ 
 mory—and whom ISliss Edgeworth, in her celebrated novels, 
 ferms “ the hanging Judge,”—to the Majors Sirr and Swan of 
 the rebellion of’98 notoriety—to the O’Briens, the Heppen- 
 stalls, or M'Murragh’s—or the Gibraltarists who last year 
 imprisoned their Bishop—that moment 1 they are all on w hat 
 the French term the i( qui vive ,”—alive to the insult done 
 their country, and determined to have vengeance on the unge¬ 
 nerous and unmanly assailant of their country and religion. 
 
 The very persons who should be the first to speak in defence 
 of their Kishop—living in his neighbourhood and witnessing 
 bis episcopal and truly apostolical conduct—were as silent as 
 stone stocks when they heard the Bishop maligned and abused; 
 but no sooner w as a word said against his assailants, and their 
 conduct denounced as unworthy of Irishmen and Catholics, 
 than they become furnished as with a thousand tongues to take 
 vengeance on the impious person who dare arraign and con¬ 
 demn the conduct of their countrymen. It is the opinion of 
 some thinking people here, that if some of these poor Irish 
 people were born dumb, they would get the use of their speech 
 were the preference given in their presence to any thing of 
 Scotch production to that of Irish produce ; and they are sure 
 that as good a scene would be realized as that which we have 
 read of as having happened in England,, where two Irish ladies 
 in society could not be induced to utter a word until a face¬ 
 tious fellow in the company whispered a friend that he would 
 make the dumb ladies speak, which he immediately effected 
 with a vengeance—to the no small amusement of the company 
 
 _by publicly asserting, without fear of contradiction, that the 
 
 English potatoes were far superior to Irish potatoes. 
 
 This class of poor, illiterate Irish—and I trust that this is 
 the best apology for them—will not admit that Ireland pro¬ 
 duced a bad man in any shape or form, or that any country 
 could produce a man as good as the worst of Irishmen, only 
 deserve pity and contempt, but that men who have know n 
 their countrymen to swear away the lives of innocent persons, 
 and who declared themselves so at the foot of the gallows, 
 should aver that all Irishmen are as immaculate as new-born 
 babes, and that in all Ireland, Nova Scotia, or in the British' 
 Colonies not a bad* Irishman can be found—well aware that 
 
K>4 
 
 those men who pocketed the “ blood money” were sent out 
 by the Government to the Colonies to save them from popu¬ 
 lar vengeance—render the integrity and purity of their own 
 own character seriously questionable—at least their opinions 
 widely differ from that of Erin’s immortal Bard— 
 
 n Alas! for my country! her pride is gone by, 
 
 And that spirit is broken which never would bend* 
 
 O’er the ruins her children in secret must sigh, 
 
 For ’tis treason to love her and death to defend. 
 
 Unprized are her sons till they ’ve learnt to betray, 
 Undistinguish’d they live if they shame not their sires, 
 
 And the torch that would light them to dignity’s way, 
 
 Rl ust be caught from the pile where their country expires.” 
 
 I admit that no country in the world ever produced braver, 
 better, more charitable, or more hospitable men than Ireland, 
 but I am also free to admit that no country ever produced 
 worse or more treacherous characters both to their ancient 
 creed and country than Ireland. To the first class belongs 
 the O’Connells, Shells, Skullies, &c. of Munster, the O'Moores, 
 O’Tooles, and O’Cavannghs of Leinster, the O’Donnells, 
 O’Neils, and M‘Guires of Ulster, and the Blakes, O’Connors, 
 and M‘Dermotts of Connaught. To the second class belongs 
 the entire Gibraltar Junta set of Catholics, and all the mem¬ 
 bers, with a few exceptions, of the Committee of St. Mary’s 
 Parish, 1841, in the Capital of Nova Scot ia . On reading over 
 their names, I defy any man, Protestant or Catholic, rich or 
 poor, who knew* them in Ireland, to say that their fathers or 
 grandfathers ranked as or were admitted to be by all classes, 
 Catholic gentlemen of ancient and respectable parentage. 
 Catholic gentlemen of education would blush to be impeached 
 with such conduct, and were they to hear them at home speak¬ 
 ing of the indifference of the Bishop to the cause of Religion, 
 or the covert attacks on the Vicar General, I would not be irr 
 their jackets for the price of the fattest ox the most expert 
 tradesman in their honorable families deprived of his pelt—the 
 
 hoofs and horns thrown into the bargain. 
 
 © 
 
 You have the highest dignitaries in Church and State of the 
 other religious denominations at your doors—ask them what 
 do they think of the conduct of your Committee men, and of 
 your Catholic honorables to your Bishop, and they will tell 
 you—for they are too noble-minded, too enlightened, at d too 
 elevated in rank and fortune to deceive you—that your con¬ 
 duct is abominable, shameful and disgraceful ; and, he not 
 
10;5 
 
 ignorant of it, they have already expressed themselves to that 
 effect—and the writer of these lines could mention the name 
 of one of the most illustrious of them who has so expressed 
 himself. 
 
 You think, indeed, to procure the respect of your Protes¬ 
 tant neighbours by expressing a contempt for the ancient 
 usages of the Church, the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Mass 
 and all its antiquated ceremonies, and to let them know that, 
 like them, all your passion for devotion consists in hearing 
 eloquent sermons, listening to Evening Songs and Vesper 
 Hymns, beautifully and delightfully chaunted. You wish to 
 make them believe that you are extremely liberal, and, 
 of course, enlightened, by despising abstinence on fast days, 
 crossing yourselves before and after meals, and, should you 
 say “Grace,” carefully omitting to pray for the dead, and 
 such other old-fashioned ceremonies of the old mother church. 
 You think that by shewing disrespect to your Clergymen and 
 everything Catholic, and shewing the greatest deference for 
 Protestant Clergymen and Protestant opinions, that thev will 
 say “ What a nice, well-bred gentleman that is. Is it not 
 astonishing that such an elegant and fashionable man, of such 
 polished and refined manners, could be a Catholic? Did you 
 observe the elegant bow he made on coming into the room— 
 his graceful smile as he presented cake to the ladies?” &c. 
 but, be assured of it, the Protestants are not such fools as to 
 set mnch value on such empty-headed productions. They 
 know what Catholics are better than you, and they are well 
 aware that the Emperors of the Brazils and Austria, the 
 Kings of France, Naples, Sardinia, &c., and the first states¬ 
 men and diplomatists as well as the first classical and scien¬ 
 tific scholars in the world are Catholics, and are ready to 
 admit, in words similar to those of the learned Gibbon—speak¬ 
 ing of the celebrated works of the well-known Alban Butler— 
 “ The sense and learning belong to the author, bis prejudices 
 are those of his profession,” that their great learning and pro¬ 
 found erudition belong to themselves—their religious preju¬ 
 dices to the impressions of an early and well attended-to 
 religious education ; and they know full well that if such great 
 men were present, they would speak and act in quite a differ¬ 
 ent manner, were the subject of the Church or its ministers 
 introduced upon the tapis. Every Protestant knows that 
 fellows who act a3 the Schismaticks of the Capital of Nova 
 Scotia now do are nothing more than mere coxcombs—worth¬ 
 less nothings, worthy of contempt and nothing else. They 
 would not give them the same credit for being Catholics that 
 
 o 
 
10G 
 
 certain Jews and Turk9 gave certain Europeans at Constanti¬ 
 nople for being Christians.—The good Europeans wished to 
 show their friends of the turban and long beards that they 
 were not Mussulmen by drinking most profusely of wine, rum, 
 and brandy, so strictly prohibited by the law of Mahomet ; 
 and, desirous to make a similar demonstration of their not 
 being Jews to their Hebrew associates, eat pork with the most 
 extraordinary avidity, arrd such was the execution performed 
 on the pork, wine, rum and brandy, by these worthy and, no 
 doubt, orthodox professors of the Christian faith, that both 
 the Jews and Mahometans exclaimed, with one accord, “ You 
 are the best Christians we ever saw, or were acquainted with.” 
 
 In fact to see these vacant countenanced fellows swaggering 
 about the Chapel on a Sunday, you would imagine you saw so 
 many birds of prey hovering around some dead carcass, or so 
 many bumbailiffs watching round a Court-House in the old 
 country on an Assize day : all, as it were, interested about the 
 Church—all ready to censure and find fault with every thing 
 that does not tickle their fancy—all ready at the wind of the 
 word to pass resolutions against their pious, zealous Bishop, 
 and most laborious pastor the Vicar General—their faithful 
 laborer for years in the vineyard of Christ. In fact their 
 conduct is so abominable that it is surprising how the Bishop 
 and Vicar General would not prefer celebrating Mass in the 
 open fields sooner than submit to the degradation of offering it 
 in a house where such fellows have any control. It is asto¬ 
 nishing that they do not put in force the interdicts sanctioned 
 by the authority of Popes Gregory IX., Boniface VIII., and 
 Gregory X., and deprive the people of public worship until the 
 leaders would submit to the authority of the Church, and give 
 them as a choice, either to do public penance in sackcloth 
 and ashes, or hear a public sentence of excommunication from 
 the Church denounced against them from the altar in the tem¬ 
 ple of the living God. Why not at once put down the system 
 of Wardens and Electors which, on the authority of the pre¬ 
 sent Pope—in his Brief addressed to Doctor Hughes, of Gib¬ 
 raltar—derives its existence and continuation from the will of 
 the Bishop? This vinculum iniquitatis must be broken ; until 
 then there will be no peace in the Catholic Church of Nova 
 Scotia; and the sooner it is frittered to pieces by the strong 
 arm of Episcopal authority the better for the public at large 
 and for themselves in particular : for then, and then only, w il! 
 they bo Catholics for the good of their souls or no Catholics 
 at all—then will they go to the Church to say their prayers or 
 not go at ail. 
 
107 
 
 If in country parts some worthless Catholics have the auda¬ 
 city to assume to themselves the prerogative of reproving the 
 Priest for doing his duty in rescuing from the grasp of fanati¬ 
 cism and proseiytism the little lambs of his fold, and*condemn 
 the verdict of the learned judge in his favor—who said that in 
 doing so he only did his duty, and that if he had not acted as 
 he did he should not have done his duty — and declare if he 
 should condemn their conduct in spilling human blood, &c., 
 that they will shut their pockets against him, and contribule 
 nothing to his support, and, during his stay in the Parish, rob 
 the Supreme Being of the great honor and homage to be 
 derived from their presence at public worship: while others, 
 no doubt praiseworthy imitators of their laudable example, 
 will absent themselves in like' manner should the Priest con¬ 
 demn their notions with respect to the ancient ceremonies of 
 sprinkling Holy lVater—of placing images over the altar—of 
 clothing the children in surplices and purple sutans, as in Ca¬ 
 tholic Churches on the Continent—which they say should be 
 dispensed with in this and other such like (as they arc pleased 
 to term them) Protestant countries; and if the Priest does not 
 assist at the burial of their children, call in the minister of 
 other churches, or deprive their nearest relatives of Christian 
 burial, unless the Priest consents to pronounce a lofty panegy- 
 rick or funeral oration on the universally known unknown 
 worth and numerously exalted, though hidden virtues of the 
 deceased; while others who never spoke a word of English in 
 their lives under the paternal root, and whose Mammas and 
 Pappas could not for the bare life of them, ask for a drink of 
 water in that language, and who only made their debut, or 
 first acquaintance with it, in company with the first appear¬ 
 ance of their back teeth, and who now consider themselves 
 perfect ^masters of it — although they must confess they cannot 
 get rid of a most vexatious bit of that euphonious accompani¬ 
 ment vulgarly termed “ a (ouch of the brogue, 5 ’—are most 
 anxious to have the Mass celebrated in English; these difficul¬ 
 ties soon vanish on an explanation of these rights and ceremo¬ 
 nies being given, and on making known (lie claims of the 
 impugners of them to the attention of an enlightened world- 
 on the grounds of their universally admitted deep erudition on 
 such subjects—they become objects of popular scorn and 
 derision. One of the most scientific of them have been twice 
 tried for the honors of a minas habens or dunce’s cap, in his 
 assumed profession, in the public Court-House in the very 
 town where he lived and displayed such profound theolo¬ 
 gical acumen, and where the black robes on either side 
 
103 
 
 thundered at the bar with their usual eloquence ; terminating 
 the aff air like Dean Swift’s last chapter in the lt Tale of a 
 Tub,” in,which everything was concluded and nothing con¬ 
 cluded, everything decided and nothing decided—no verdict 
 being given whether his diploma was of such a description as 
 to entitle him to practice or not not to practice the iEsculapean 
 art. 
 
 Tojview the^conduct of these vant riens you would imagine 
 that the Priests were their slaves and accountable to the pub¬ 
 lic for their conduct, and that, if they were obliged to satisfy 
 them for their delinquencies, at least they should compensate 
 their own loss from the vengeance taken by them on the cler¬ 
 gymen, as ttic slaveholders do when any of their slaves commit 
 a depredation on^the neighbouring planters, indemnify them¬ 
 selves at the expense of many a hideous yell and frightful 
 impression made on poor black negro man’s back. 
 
 How long will the Catholic Clergy of Nova Scotia endure 
 such insolence ?' Why not apply to the Government for pro¬ 
 tection, and tell them that if these unlettered and untutored 
 infidels, nicknaming themselves Catholics and Irishmen—real 
 modern Marratts and Rohespierres, with a rabble mob of regu¬ 
 lar Sans Culottes at their backs—are allowed to proceed with 
 their condifct, and to upset the altars of the living God, that 
 the next attack, in all probability (Papineau-!ike) will be on 
 the authority of her British Majesty, and that they will endea¬ 
 vour to limit or direct the sway of her sceptre in these Colo¬ 
 nies at their own discretion. Why not show the attestations 
 to our loyalty contained in our Catechisms, and be assured of 
 it that we will not call on our truly paternal Government for a 
 fish and get a serpent, for bread and be presented with a stone! 
 The words which 1 think well calculated to insure the good 
 wishes and favor of the Government are the following, read in 
 the General Catechism universally in use in this Diocese, and 
 to be found in the 17th lesson:— 
 
 Question .— What are the duties of subjects to the temporal 
 powers ? 
 
 Answer. —To be subject to them, and to honor and obey 
 them, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake, for so 
 is the will of God —1 Peter ii. and Romans xiii. 
 
 Q.—Does the Scripture require any other duty of sub¬ 
 jects ? 
 
 .4.—Yes—to pray for Kings and all who are in high station, 
 that we may lead peaceable and holy lives. — 1 Tim. ii. 
 
 Q.—Is it sinful to resist or combine against the established 
 authorities, or disrespect those who rule over us 1 
 
109 
 
 A .—Tes : St. Paul says, (i Let every soul be subject to 
 higher powers ; he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordi¬ 
 nance of God, and they that resist purchaseth to themselves 
 damnation.”— Romans , xiii. 
 
 Your countrymen at home petitioned for and received Ca¬ 
 tholic Emancipation at the hands of the Government when 
 their religion was not the least endangered, now, that it is 
 endangered, why not send Addresses from every little town 
 and settlement against these wolves in sheep’s clothing, through 
 h:s Excellency the Lieutenant Governor of the Province, and 
 through him to the Home Department, and you will soon see 
 what a change will take place, and these pseudo Catholics and 
 pseudo Irishmen would soon respect you as much as they res¬ 
 pect the ministers and members of the Church of England, 
 and of the other religious denominations. 
 
 In the language of St. Peter, (1 Epis. chap, ii.) (i Abstain 
 from all carnal desires that war against the sou! ; do well and 
 put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; honour all men— 
 love the brotherhood — fear God, and honor the King;’' and 
 enable your pastors to say of you, should they be compelled 
 to make an apology in your behalf to the Government—in 
 words similar to those of St. Augustine, in his 138th letter to 
 Marcellinus—“Let those who may say that the doctrine of 
 Catholics is hostile to the Government produce on army of 
 such inhabitants of Provinces, such husbands, such wives, 
 such parents, such childien, such masters, such servants, such 
 judges—finally, such payers of debts and collectors of the 
 revenue as the doctrine of Catholicity enjoins, and then let 
 any persons dare to assert that it is inimical to the Govern¬ 
 ment : rather let them not hesitate to acknowledge that it is, 
 when practised of great advantage to the Government.” 
 
 I am sure these fellows will tell you that Hibernicus is an 
 enemy to his country and religion, and of course that they are 
 friends t~> both—“ Look at how he has described our wretched 
 state at home, and the degrading laws we were obliged to sub¬ 
 mit to, &c.; but has Mr. O’Connell ever done so? Has he 
 ever spoken of the doings of the Hiding House, or Pitched 
 Caps of ’98, or of the victims under which the gallows of our 
 country has groaned ? Has he ever spoken of the wretched 
 
 state of our peasantry at home —driven out on the highroad 
 
 to perish to make way for the fatted oxen?” Has he not done 
 so? Not only in by-gone days, but during the course of last 
 month he bewailed at the Corn Exchange, London, the hope¬ 
 less state of his countrymen, who, driven from their native 
 homes, were obliged to burrow holes in the churchyards to 
 
% 
 
 110 
 
 shelter themselves, and (hat during the course of the week 
 preceding that in which he thus expressed himself. Did 
 Father O’Leary ever address the people on the danger of 
 being seduced into rebellion by selfish and designing men, 
 who wished to fatten on their blood ? And will you say that 
 Mr. O’Connell does not or Father O’Leary did not love their 
 country? IIibernicus tells you that these men who have 
 oppossod the episcopal jurisdiction of their Bishop in the Ca¬ 
 pital of Nova Scotia are as great enemies and traitors to their 
 church as the Jemmy O’Briens, Ileppenstalls, and Murtagh 
 M'Murraglis were to their country, He tells you that not 
 one of them could boast their descent from an ancient and 
 honorable family, or that any of them held the rank of Catho¬ 
 lic gentleman in the old country. He also tells you that you 
 know that fact, and that their conduct would disgrace an 
 Orange Lodge of tire worst description—that no Orangeman 
 of rank would let himself down so low as to speak as they do 
 of the Bishop, Vicar General, and Catholic Priests of this 
 Diocese. 
 
 My Countrymen, you have happy homes here ; you are not 
 oppressed by severe local taxation, or rackrents, neither are 
 you burdened with tithes, church cess, &c., and why then 
 should you not have your altars free 1 The Protestants are 
 your friends, and, so far from wishing to injure you, they pro¬ 
 tect you, and enable you to build your churches, See. Your 
 enemies are of the worst description—they are of your own 
 household. Meet, then, and petition the Bishop and the 
 Governor of the Colony against the inroad made on the liber¬ 
 ties of the gospel vou profess. Imitate the noble example of 
 the Catholics of the Counties of Pictou, Colchester and Cum¬ 
 berland, and shew them that if Ireland lias produced the worst 
 of men, that she has abo given birth to men the most loyal 
 and true to their ancient faith and country. 
 
 Petition, then, in every direction, the Bishop to suppress 
 the Society called “ The Wardens and Electors of Saint 
 Mary’s Church, Halifax,”—the fruitful cause of so much of 
 the evil we complain of. Shun the members of the Committee 
 until they withdraw their names from it. Honor the illustrious 
 Queen of the flourishing British Islands—to use the language 
 of the present Pope in his Brief to Doctor Hughes, Gibraltar 
 —and entreat the Almighty to spare her long to reign over 
 us. Pray for the Pope himself, the acknowledged head of the 
 Catholic Church and the successor of St. Peter ; and do not 
 forget to implore forgiveness if you have tiansgressed in any 
 way against the obedience due to your pious and much injured 
 
Ill 
 
 Bishop, and his assistants—whom, I trust, you will beseech the 
 Lord long to preserve, and to save from the hands of his and 
 their enemies. Then, and not till then, will you be entitled to 
 bear the name of Irishmen and Irish Catholics, to enjoy the 
 blessings temporal and spiritual of the government we live un¬ 
 der and of our holy and blessed religion. And when you have 
 given to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what 
 belongs to GoJ, you will be enabled to say with truth and 
 Irom the bottom of your hearts of your illustrious Queen, the 
 Pope, the Bishop of this Diocese, and his many assistants— 
 
 Long may they live to share the bliss they give. 
 
 And when called hence to Heaven’s eternal throne, 
 
 Way choirs of angels waft them to the skies! 
 
 If I have been obliged to turn my pen into an instrument of 
 torture to inflict condign punishment on the outlaws of my 
 ancient religion and country, they have no one to blame but 
 themselves : they have furnished me with a lash to effect the 
 purpose. I have argued from their own concessions—from 
 the data, as Mathematicians term it, that they have given me 
 —and from the concessions of the premises drew conclusions 
 as clearly and evidently demonstrated as any problem in 
 Geometry could be; and I have argued from the admission of 
 all their absurdities, as Schoolmen term it, and drawn conclu¬ 
 sions reflecting little honor on my literary assailants, and 
 should they now find themselves in rather an awkward situation 
 on the horns of an angry argument before the world, let them 
 attribute to themselves the truth contained in tho following 
 words— 
 
 “ A rod in a school, 
 
 For the back of a fool, 
 
 Is always in season. 57 
 
 The stern Brutus wept when he ordered his sons to be first 
 whipped and then beheaded in his presence. The Lord Mayor 
 Lynch, of Galway, shed tears when he pronounced sentence 
 of death on bis own son, who committed murder, when he 
 asssisted at his execution ; and, believe me, the blood of 
 Hibernicus thrilled with horror in his veins while inflicting a 
 literary castigation on his countrymen. 
 
 Trusting that Ooliba will take warning from the chastise¬ 
 ment of Oolla and avoid similar punishments, and that my— 
 as yet—innocent countrymen will take a lesson from the cas¬ 
 tigation inflicted on the enemies to both our ancient creed and 
 
112 
 
 dearly beloved fatherland, and learn to avoid evil and do 
 *ood, are the sincere wishes, anxious hope, and long desired 
 expectations of 
 
 Your truly faithful, 
 
 Sincerely devoted, and 
 
 Very obedient, humble 
 Servant, 
 
 HTBERN1CUS. 
 
113 
 
 Extracts from the pamphlet entitled 
 
 “A REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF ST. 
 MARY’S PARISH,” HALIFAX, N. S. 
 
 #*##**# 
 
 In the year 1785 the first Catholic Church was erected, and 
 a Clergyman of the Franciscan Order arrived at Halifax, who 
 assumed the spiritual charge of the congregation. His minis¬ 
 try continued with increasing success until the year 1798, 
 when the Reverend Gentleman retired from the religious 
 superintendence of the Catholics of this city and returned to 
 his native country—Ireland—where at his decease he bequeath¬ 
 ed a considerable legacy to the College of Maynooth. In the 
 interim, the Rev. Mr. Burke, a Priest from the Island of 
 Newfoundland, visited Halifax, and temporally officiated. At 
 this time, from causes at this distance not easily ascertained, 
 some serious disturbances in the feelings of the congregation 
 occurred, which, on being announced to the Bishop of Que¬ 
 bec, who claimed jurisdiction over Nova Scotia (by its old 
 name Acadia,) that Prelate ordered the Rev. Dr. Edmund 
 Burke to the mission of Halifax, with plenary powers as Vicar 
 
 General of the Province. 
 
 The Vicar immediately convoked a meeting of the principal 
 Inhabitants, and submitted to them certain constitutions, 
 which, with the sanction of the Lord Bishop, and upon the 
 model of similar and analagous systems in the Canadas, he 
 was commanded to establish and enforce. These constitu¬ 
 tions imparted to a certain body of the Parishioners, deriving 
 its existence from the elective principle, certain specified 
 powers relative to the financial and economic government of 
 
 the Parish. . _ A 4 , 
 
 The purport of the same may be concisely stated as fol- 
 
 The indispensable presence of the Vicar General, or his 
 representative, in the Parish at all Parochial Meetings or 
 Convocations of the above Body (known by the name and title 
 
 p 
 
of <f Wardens and Electors.” His signature in attestation of 
 a sanction to all such acts and proceedings wherein they should 
 be called upon to regulate and administer the temporalties of 
 the mission, when not repugnant to the canons of the Church. 
 The annual election by voice (by the members of the same 
 body severally kneeling at the foot of the Priest presiding) of 
 four Wardens—one of w hom should be in charge for the cur¬ 
 rent year—whose functions should consist in the collection of 
 all rates and dues, constitutionally imposed, subject to tbe 
 judgment of the administrator of the Parish for sepulture.— 
 The annual subscriptions and the rents (at vendue) stipulated 
 as payable for the use and occupation of the pews. The 
 Warden then in charge was further confined in his expendi¬ 
 ture to the sum of five pounds currency upon all matters of 
 trivial and temporal necessity. Any requisition for an outlay 
 of a higher or larger sum must be made to the general body 
 at its meeting, duly constituted as before, who alone were the 
 competent authorities for the purposes of general disburse¬ 
 ment and appropriation of the public funds. 
 
 Under the authority vested in the Wardens and Electors by 
 the Constitution adverted to, that Body continued from the 
 period of its origin, through the w r hoIe spiritual administration 
 of the late Dr. Edmund Burke over this Vicariate, to supply by 
 the suffrages of its constituents the several vacancies as they 
 occurred by death or removal from the Parish, until, during 
 the episcopacy of Dr. Fraser, the Pewholders were admitted, 
 by that Prelate’s amendment of the constitution to their pri¬ 
 vilege in the exercise of the franchise. 
 
 One of their first acts after the improvement thus intro¬ 
 duced by His .Lordship, was a resolution accompanied by an 
 humble address, both of which we subjoin, and to which we 
 respectfully solicit attention, bearing as it does the signature 
 of the Vicar General, as a sanction to its justice and its truth 
 (vide Appendix A &: B); but if further testimony were wanting 
 to evince the anxiety of the congregation on the subject of its 
 spiritual wants, a resolution was passed as early as the sixth 
 of January, 1833, appropriating an ample sum for the mainte¬ 
 nance of his Lordship and one Clergyman, and including a fur¬ 
 ther offer of suitable provision for additional Clergymen to 
 meet the “ pressing wants” of the Parish; which latter requi¬ 
 sition became the constant and reiterated subject of importu¬ 
 nity to his Lordship (vide Appendix, C, D & K.) 
 
 The effect of these importunities and the constant readi¬ 
 ness evinced by the Parish, at length prevailed upon his Lord- 
 ship, at the instance of the Wardens to address the following 
 
letter lo the Most Reverend Dr. Murray, requesting his 
 Grace’s intervention in our behalf : 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 Halifax, Nova Scolia , N. America, 
 July Wlh, 1838 . 
 
 TO HIS GRACE THE MOST REV. DR, MURRAY. 
 Most Reverend Sir,— 
 
 Fully convinced that your Lordship will Teel intense 
 interest in every project calculated to promote (he glory 
 of God and the salvation of souls, I beg leave without preface 
 or apology, to introduce to your Lordship’s consideration the 
 following important subject. I arrived here ten days ago from 
 the eastern extremity of the Province, where necessity com¬ 
 pels me to reside, and on my arrival was requested by the 
 Catholic population of this town, six thousand in number, all 
 Irish or Irish descent, to apply to yoijr Lordship for two 
 Clergymen from your Diocese, one as an assistant to the Re¬ 
 verend John Loughnan, the present incumbent, and (he other 
 to take charge of the education of youth in Ihe Seminary. 
 A Priest of unexceptionable character and possessed of consi¬ 
 derable oratorial powers in explaining (he principles of our 
 holy religion, and enforcing its divine precepts would he of 
 incalculable benefit in this place. By to-morrow’s packet I 
 remit a bill of £100 to Messrs. Wright Sc Co , Bankers, Lon¬ 
 don, which will be at your disposal for the above purpose. I 
 am, besides, authorised to slate that the sum of three hundred 
 pounds currency, as yearly salary, will be cheerfully given with 
 comfortable lodgings in the Glebe House. Should your 
 Lordship, however find it impossible to relieve ns, may I so 
 far presume on j’our goodness as to request your influence* an*! 
 kind interference wilhsomo other Bishop or Bishops in Ireland 
 who may be both disposed and able, without any inconveni¬ 
 ence, to remove the spiritual wants, and accomplish the ear¬ 
 nest and pious wish of your countrymen here. 
 
 Iri anxious expectation of an answer as early as convenient 
 
 I remain, my Lord, 
 
 Yours, uti Frater in Christo, 
 
 »{• WILLIAM FRASER, Ep. Tanen, 
 
 And Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton 
 
116 
 
 The gentleman sought for arrived, and before even their 
 entrance upon the duties of the various stations intended for 
 them, and to which they had been invited, some untoward and 
 serious misunderstanding occurred, which led to the threat 
 of their immediate and sudden departure from the Province, 
 by the vessel in which they arrived ; an event only averted by 
 the unanimous entreaties and supplications of the people, 
 represented through the Wardens and Electors, and the docu¬ 
 mentary proof of which we subjoin from the Parochial Re¬ 
 cords—(vide Appendix E.) 
 
 His Lordship at this time having abruptly left us, without 
 any adjustment of or measures taken to arrange these unseemly 
 divisions, a condition so full of perplexity and confusion to 
 our people, that a special memorial, by a gentleman of approv¬ 
 ed and exemplary character and as such known to the Bishop, 
 was addressed to his Lordship, explicitly descriptive of our con¬ 
 dition, and remonstrating for relief. We know not how we can 
 better set forth the state of which we complained than by the 
 insertion of the letter at full length which follows, passed at a 
 meeting, sanctioned by the attendance of the Vicar General, 
 as is testified by his signature to the same. (Vide Appendix 
 
 F & G ) 
 
 The gentleman (messenger) obtained the contemplated 
 interview with his Lordship at Antigonish (distant from Hali¬ 
 fax 150 miles), and led the Parish to the entertainment of a 
 sanguine hope, that measures would be taken to secure the 
 services of these gentlemen in the Parish with comfort to 
 themselves and usefelnessto the people. 
 
 ##**#*#* 
 
 During the Holy Week of the last Lent, the present gene¬ 
 ration of Catholics in Halifax witnessed for the first time, 
 under the ministration of these Reverend Gentlemen the 
 solemnization of those vesper observances so peculiarly suited 
 in our ritual to the sanctity of the season, and the magnificent 
 and soul-thrilling psalmody of the tenebrae, with their atten¬ 
 dant ceremonials, were for the first time intoned beneath the 
 vaults of St. Mary’s *, and we hesitate not to say that the 
 Holy Week of the last year in this city will not fail to be 
 remembered for a long space of time yet to come. 
 
 During this—as it ultimately proved to be—treacherous 
 calm, the earnest attention of all was directed to carry out 
 one of the dearest objects which they had proposed in urging 
 the Bishop to send for two Clergymen, was the establishment 
 
117 
 
 of a College. In it (hey were ably seconded by the Reverend 
 Mr. O’Brien, who soon had the high gratification of seeing 
 persons of all creeds availing themselves of the facilities 
 afforded by such an institution. His most sanguine anticipa¬ 
 tions were realized, the number of students attending the 
 classes soon amounting to nearly eighty. On the meeting of 
 the Legislature in the year following, a munificent donation of 
 three hundred pounds was made towards its support by an 
 almost unanimous vote ; and to insure a continuance of the 
 bright prospects which were daw ning on the Catholics of this 
 country, an Act of Incorporation was passed, granting the 
 power of conferring Degrees—thus placing the College on a 
 footing of equality with that belonging to the established reli¬ 
 gion which had for many years existed in the Colony. The 
 want of such an Institution had for years pressed on the minds 
 of Catholics. No other sources whence instruction could be 
 derived for their children being open to them but those which 
 would tend to sap the foundation of their faith. To the emi¬ 
 nent talents and unwearied exertions of the Reverend Princi¬ 
 pal, notwithstanding the repeated attempts to stay its onward 
 career from the very moment of his putting foot on our soil, 
 are the Catholics of this country indebted for the institution 
 of St. Mary’s. But, unfortunately, like almost every under¬ 
 taking engaged in by the Catholics of this community, its 
 usefulness is paralyzed, its very existence put in jeopardy, by 
 the indifference evinced towards it by the Bishop, and the 
 covert attacks of the Vicar General. 
 
 ********** 
 
 The insufficiency of the accommodation afforded by the 
 Church of St. Mary’s for seven thousand Parishioners, being 
 but 80 by 60 feet, induced the people to provide against this 
 crying inconveniency, by attempting to erect a second at the 
 opposite end of the City of Halifax. His Lordship the Bishop 
 commended the spirit of the people, and from the Altar gave 
 his blessing to the work. * * * A site in a commodious 
 
 and valuable division of the city was purchased by a Committee 
 of Gentlemen in the Parish, selected by the Body, with the 
 Very Reverend the Vicar General at their head. He, in 
 conjunction with the members of the Committee, had selected 
 the above ground for purchase, approved highly of its position 
 and evinced every disposition at the time to sustain and encou¬ 
 rage the laudable anti Catholic objects of the People. In 
 conformity to a requisition for a general meeting of the Parish, 
 to sanction the purchase made by the committee, and to col- 
 
113 
 
 tect the necessary funds for the erection of the church, the 
 public meeting took place, and notwithstanding the previous 
 approval by the Vicar General of the project, and the recom¬ 
 mendation of the Bishop, he abruptly left the chair 
 and the meeting in a scene of perplexity and discouragement. 
 The people, notwithstanding, having the blessing of the Bishop 
 publicly given from the Altar at High Mass, upon the under¬ 
 taking, still struggled with the hope of providing farther acco¬ 
 modation for the religious wants of their fellows. # # * 
 
 In a word, the ground obtained and agreed for has been 
 demanded back by the proprietors, the amount of monies col¬ 
 lected or subscribed remains without an object for their appli¬ 
 cation, and the insufficiency of church accommodation is 
 matter of constant complaint. * * * 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Dease, who will present these documents, 
 finding his situation such (we repeat his own words which we 
 presume he would find himself able to substantiate), “ that it 
 “ seriously impaired his usefulness as a Clergyman, by inter- 
 “ rupting the charities and peaceful quiet of inind, so essen- 
 “ tial to one who had to minister at (he altar,” at length 
 applied for his exeat. * * * 
 
 The exeat which Mr. Dease had sought was transmitted by 
 the Bishop, and for aught it would seem to cost our Ecclesi¬ 
 astical authorities, either in care or in interest, a relapse into 
 the state which the documents under their own signatures hear 
 proof of might have occurred ; but the people roused by a love 
 of their faith—a zeal for its interests and for the future for¬ 
 tunes of their children—besought his Lordship, in terms of 
 entreaty (hy a document more humble in its spirit than the 
 letter on a similar subject, sent from the Wardens and Elec¬ 
 tors, with the approval of the Rev. Mr. Loughnan), to permit 
 the further continuance of the Rev. Mr. Dcase’s ministry. 
 The record of (he proceedings on this occasion follow as 
 No. I in the Appendix. 
 
 ♦ **#*♦* 
 
 On the receipt of His Lordship’s missive, and the failure ot 
 those hopes which the arrival of the Rev. Gentleman had so 
 sanguinely inspired—discouraged by the ungenerous and 
 repulsive spirit wc had experienced from his Lordship, from 
 whom by neither word, thought nor act, we deserved such a 
 reply as was transmitted—an appeal to the Holy See, the 
 Mother 0 / the Churches presented itself. We had been taught 
 
from our infancy (hat it was the centre of unity, ami the seat 
 of the Apostles, and that a reference for counsel and advice 
 to its authorities was an evidence of filial submissivem.ss raifrer 
 than deviation from discipline. We subjoin a record of 
 the steps taken by the Parish, with the Resolutions and 
 appended documents, which, in all humility and with the 
 most unqualified deference to Ecclessiastical authority we 
 forward. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Dease lias since taken his leave of the Parish, 
 and left for his native Diocese in Ireland, en route to the Holy 
 City, where we, in the earnestness of our hearts, pray that an 
 examination of the Premises, and an inspection of our religi¬ 
 ous state and condition, with the grounds of complaint, whe¬ 
 ther well or ill founded, may take place, and such relief or 
 remedy in the matter may be afforded to the people, as in 
 conscience and in equity they deserve. 
 
 In conclusion, as we, the subscribers have been publicly at 
 the altar threatened w'ith exclusion from the sacraments by 
 the Very Rev. Mr. Loughnan, until the opinion of his Lord- 
 ship the Bishop be received on this subject. We solemnly 
 appeal for counsel and advice, and for correction, (if misin- 
 slructed in the right appreciation of the privilege, which some¬ 
 times becomes a duty in a Catholic, of referring to the Holy 
 See in his doubts and his difficulties)—to that sacred head, the 
 acknowledgement of whose authority indicates the absence of 
 schism, and submission to whose voice, both in doctrine and 
 discipline, is the most certain evidence of Catholic Commu¬ 
 nion. 
 
 Michael Tobin, sen., Chairman. 
 L. O’C. Doyle, Secretary . 
 
 Edward Kenny, 
 Peter Furlong, 
 
 Thomas Kenny, 
 Michael Bennet, 
 James Cochran, 
 James Wallace, 
 William Donovan, 
 Daniel Cronan, 
 William Barron, 
 Manl. Defreytus, 
 Thomas. S. Tobin, 
 
 Michael Tobin, jr. 
 Michael Maloney, 
 John Quinn, 
 Thomas Ring, 
 Roger Cunningham, 
 Patrick Walsh, 
 John Nugent, 
 William Skerry, 
 Peter Morrisey, 
 
 James C. Tobin, 
 William Dillon, 
 Pat. Swaine, 
 Jerem. Conway, 
 Thos. Fielding, 
 John Roche, 
 Peter Grant, t 
 
 Committee appointed by the Parish of St. Mary’s, 
 
 Halifax, N. S., December 31, 1841. 
 
120 
 
 #### # # * # 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Halifax, November 14, 1841. 
 
 In consequence of an announcement from the Altar, at 
 the time of the solemn Mass for the Parish of St. Mary, in the 
 City of Halifax, that the Rev. L. J. Dease had received his 
 Exeat from the Right Rev. Dr. Fraser, the Vicar Apostolic 
 of Nova Scotia and its dependencies—A meeting of the Pa¬ 
 rishioners was held on Sunday the 14th instant, after Ves¬ 
 pers, in the Parochial School Room, the Hon. Michael Tobin, 
 Senior, was unanimously called to the Chair; L. O’Connor 
 Doyle, Esq., was appointed to act as Secretary. 
 
 The objects of the Meeting were fully and at length set 
 forth by the Honorable Chairman, who forcibly depicted to 
 the Meeting, the early difficulties which opposed the progress 
 of our Faith in this Province, and the improving condition of 
 our affairs, since the arrival of the Reverend Gentlemen, 
 whose services the zeal and exertion of His Grace the Arch¬ 
 bishop of Dublin, had procured for this Vicariate. A general 
 feeling of regret at the untoward event of Mr. Dease’s sepa¬ 
 ration evincing itself, a resolution was moved to the effect 
 following : 
 
 By the Honorable Michael Tobin, Junior. 
 
 That an Address be presented to His Lordship, humbly 
 soliciting Him to reinstate the Rev. Mr. Dease, in the faculties 
 requisite for a renewal of his Ministry in this Parish, if His 
 Lordship should so please. 
 
 The following Address, in pursuance of the terms of the 
 Resolution, was then unanimously passed : 
 
 Halifax, November, 18, 1841. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT REV. DOCTOR FRASER, 
 
 BISHOP OF TANEN, AND VICAR APOSTOLIC OF NOVA SCOTIA. 
 
 Right Rev. and Very Dear Sir, 
 
 We trespass on your Lordship’s time at this season, to 
 enclose a copy of the request we have forwarded to the Rev. 
 Joseph Dease, to induce his further continuance in the service 
 of this Parish, where, we unfeignedly assure your Lordship, a 
 high sense of his usefulness is universally felt; and as we have 
 prevailed upon him to consent to remain, subject to your 
 Lordship’s approval, we pray your Lordship will be pleased so 
 
12J 
 
 («-> order mailers, by sanctioning such consent, as will give sta¬ 
 bility to the high and cheering hopes we entertain for the 
 improving welfare of this important portion of your Vicariate. 
 
 Thoroughly impressed with the sense of all due and proper 
 submissiveness to your Lordship’s high prerogative, we solicit 
 your acquiescence in the prayer of this Memorial, and remain 
 with considerations of the highest respect, 
 
 Your obedient Servants, 
 
 (Signed by nearly one thousand Parishioners.) 
 
 A Special Messenger was despatched to Antigonish, with 
 the foregoing address to the Bishop, on Tuesday 16th, who 
 returned on 23d, with the Reply annexed. 
 
 Halifax, 20th November, 1841. 
 THE HONOURABLE MICHAEL TOBIN, JUNIOR, 
 
 ^HALIFAX. 
 
 Honorable Dear Sir, 
 
 I avail myself of Mr. Doyle’s return to Halifax, of informing 
 that the Letter, containing the Petition for an additional 
 Church in the Northern Suburbs, with its signatures, has been 
 committed to the flames, with other important though now 
 useless communications. 
 
 As I wish as much as possible to curtail all unnecessary 
 correspondence, I take the liberty of addressing you individu¬ 
 ally on the subject of the last Petition, so numerously and 
 respectably signed, for reinstating the Rev. Mr. Dease in his 
 former capacity. His resignation was solely the act of his 
 own will, and it was at his own earnest request I sent him his 
 Excat or Dismissorials : if he now feel disappointed, and 
 repent of his rash and hasty resolutions, let him blame him¬ 
 self, not me. I delayed three posts in sending them, in the 
 expectation of receiving in the interim counter orders, but to 
 no effect. He has them now and he is at full liberty to return 
 to his native soil. The Exeat will show that his retirement 
 from my jurisdiction was voluntary on his part, and by no 
 means compulsory on mine. 
 
 Any future application to me on the subject of the selection 
 and appointment of clergymen to Parochial duties, or eccles- 
 siasticaI offices within the limits of my spit itual jurisdiction, 
 will meet with the unqualified and well merited contempt of 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 And sincere well-wisher, 
 
 ^ WILLIAM FRASER, Ep, Tanen, &c. 
 
122 
 
 On the receipt of intelligence that the special messenger to 
 whom the memorial to His Lordship Dr. Fraser was trans¬ 
 mitted, had returned, a formal requisition was addressed to 
 the legitimate authority, according to the Episcopal Constitu¬ 
 tion of the Parish, and a general meeting was, conformably 
 thereto, held on Sunday 28th November, the Very Rev. the 
 Vicar General in the Chair : when after having read and fully 
 considered the Letter of his Lordship, Doctor Fraser, in reply 
 to the memorial, the following Resolutions were put and pas¬ 
 sed unanimously: 
 
 On motion of the Hon. M. Tobin, jun., seconded by Mr. 
 P. Furlong— 
 
 Resolved, That this Parish are unconscious of any cause 
 given by them for the imputation of interfering with his Lord- 
 ship “ on the subject of the selection and appointment of 
 Clergymen to Parochial duties or ecclesiastical offices within 
 the limits of his spiritual jurisdiction.and they regard the 
 mention of such matters in the reply of his Lordship, as 
 unjustified by any word or expression in their letter to him, or 
 by any previous act of theirs, and utterly undeserved by the 
 spirit aud disposition shewn by this Parish to preserve all due 
 consideration for their Superior in the Hierarchy, and their 
 undeviating respect for the authorities of a Church to which 
 their hearts and affections are inalienably attached; and they 
 hereby disavow every thought so repugnant to their concep¬ 
 tions of duty, and feel that they would justly subject them¬ 
 selves to the reproach of all good Catholics, were they capa¬ 
 ble of meriting at any time, or in any manner the unkind 
 insinuations of his Lordship. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 On motion of Mr. James C. Tobin, seconded by Mr. James 
 Wallace— 
 
 Resolved, That inasmuch as the Parish find they are unable 
 to retain the services of the Rev. Mr. Dease, they deem it 
 incumbent on them to express the deep regret they feel at the 
 necessity of parting with one to whose extraordinary exertions 
 they are indebted for the establishment of so many useful 
 institutions conducive to the advancement of Catholicity in 
 this City, and the education'Jand instruction of children to 
 which he had so zealously devoted himself. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Michael Maloney, seconded by Mr. P. 
 Mfcrrrisey — 
 
123 
 
 Resolved, That an Address, expressive of the deep feelings 
 of gratitude of the Parishioners, aud their regret on his depar¬ 
 ture, he presented to the Rev. Mr. Dease. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Halifax, November 28, 1841. 
 
 TO THE REV. L. J. DEASE. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir, 
 
 W e the members of St. Mary’s Parish, assembled, cannot 
 permit you to leave these shores without some testimony of 
 the spirit with which we hailed your arrival, and the painful¬ 
 ness and regret with which we now feel penetrated at llie 
 announcement of your departure. When, impelled by the 
 solicitude of turning to a faithful account those resources 
 which Providence, in the dispensations of its blessings has 
 placed at our command—w hen we first besought his Grace the 
 most Rev. Dr. Murray, to bestow his sympathies upon our 
 condition, and to cast bis care upon the requirements of this 
 Parish — no other consideration but an earnest and undissem¬ 
 bled regard for the spiritual interests of our children and our¬ 
 selves constituted the motive of our conduct. We saw around 
 us a community diversified by the various castes of creeds and 
 country, exemplifying in their several relations of their inter¬ 
 course with us, a spirit of kindliness, good will, and Christian 
 charity—a characteristic of society in Nova Scotia, eminently 
 and long prevalent; We felt that if we were ever the objects 
 of a sinister or ungracious reflection, it w as rather in the 
 form of a slur upon our ow n apathy, and a stricture upon the 
 luke*\varmnes 9 we evinced in the legitimate furtherance ofour 
 own cause. The zeal and exertions made by others, for lite¬ 
 rary and religious improvements, became not only as stimu¬ 
 lants to our zeal, but as reproaches upon our apathy; and a 
 sense of duty to ourselves—to those who craved for the means 
 of further instruction—and to that Church whose doctrines 
 must solace us in this, and cheer us in our progress to a better 
 world—directed our thoughts to the metropolis of Ireland, 
 enlightened by the talents of its hierarchy 7 , and consecrated 
 by the sanctities of our Faith. r Ihe hope w hich the attention 
 of that Reverend Dignitary to our appeal so sanguinely excited 
 derived’animation and strength from the arrival of your Re¬ 
 verend Colleague and yourself in this intended scene of your 
 Ministry,—the prompt and early purposes evinced by your 
 
124 
 
 organization of those institutions of our Church, so practically 
 fitted lor the inculcations of its tenets ai d lessens, which we 
 now see in existence. The establishment, in the more solemn 
 seasons of the year, of those practices and services of our Ri¬ 
 tual which the pious wisdom of our ancestors loved to cherish 
 and transmit for our edification;—the institutions for literary 
 and academic knowledge, which, with the aid of a liberal Le¬ 
 gislature, acting upon the increasing industry and zeal of its 
 officers, has given such ample promise of benefit and eminent 
 usefulness to our children—all concurred to compensate us 
 for the solicitudes and anxieties which had had so Ion" waited 
 upon the previous interval of our dependent and ineft state. 
 We felt as if we had been made sensible to the obligations of 
 our own accountability, and as if we bad begun humbly to aid 
 in the working out of that self-improvement, so long and so 
 culpably neglected. 13ut permit us, Reverend sir, no”w to say, 
 with unfeigned bitterness of feelings, in the language of sor¬ 
 row, not the accents of anger, that our good aims and purposes 
 6eern doomed to discomfiture and defeat, and that we turn 
 with unsuppressed depression of heart, to contemplate a re¬ 
 lapse into a condition from which we fondly hoped to be 
 emerging. However, as Catholics, warmly interested in the 
 fortunes of St. Mary^s, and sanguinely hopeful of yet more 
 auspicious events than those that have hitherto attended our 
 exertions; after deep and mature thought, we have been im¬ 
 pelled by that undeviating attachment to. our Faith, that 
 inalienable love for our Church and its institutions, which 
 ever has been found to characterise the various communities 
 of the Catholic World, to seek other and more wholesome 
 counsel; and though necessity has imposed upon us the duty 
 of now expressing our farewell, whether a more benign aspect 
 
 of our fortunes may present a renewal of your ministry_a 
 
 consummation not unencouraged by the high and sanguine 
 aspirations of a hope, which even a legitimate deference to 
 authority does not exclude—yet we assure your Reverence 
 that wherever your steps may be directed, our affections and 
 esteem will ever accompany you; and that neither in the acts 
 nor language of this Parish, at any time w ill you find cause to 
 feel regret at your connexion with those whom you now 
 leave, either as a gentleman or as a Priest of our holy 
 Church. 
 
 REPL V. 
 
 Mr Dear Friends, 
 
 I he Address now before me, emanating from so large and 
 
125 
 
 *o influential a portion of the inhabitants of the City of Hali¬ 
 fax—containing so many sentiments of warm affection and 
 earnest regret—dictated by the impulse of noble and generous 
 hearts, and conveyed in so kind and complimentary a manner, 
 is at once worthy of the high character (or generosity and be¬ 
 nevolence so universally earned, and so unanimously conceded 
 to the natives and descendants of the Emerald Isle; and would 
 prove a source of high gratification and of honest pride to any 
 man, no matter how exalted his station. Grateful then, must 
 I feel in thus becoming the object of your respect and esteem, 
 while conscious of having done nothing to merit either, unless 
 that which*the duties of his sacred calling rendered so incum¬ 
 bent on the minister of the Gospel. It is only one proof more 
 that efforts, however humble, will be appreciated by a people, 
 the depth pf whose religious feeling draws a veil over the 
 defects of the minister, and renders them sensible only to the 
 honest sincerity with which lie discharges the duties of his 
 office. 
 
 Your allusion to a period preceding that of my arrival in 
 Nova Scotia, calls back to my mind the mingled feelings of 
 painful regret and holy anticipations with which I first deter¬ 
 mined upon abandoning my native country. The proverbial 
 attachment of Irishmen tor the land of their fathers might be 
 some extenuation if I then was the subject of a pang, which 
 Irishmen will always feel ; but I must say that the sundering 
 those ties, natural and domestic, which resulted from my 
 determination was rendered much less painful by the wants 
 which I was called on to remedy, and the hope6 which I dared 
 to indulge. When, at the request of the Rev. Mr. O'Brien, 
 and under the auspices of the sainted Prelate of Ireland, I 
 resolved upon going “ forth from my country and kindred to 
 come to the land which the Lord had shew n me,” I felt that 
 however strange the land, strangers its people could not be. 
 The letter of your Bishop, to whose prayer my coming was 
 a response, said that I came to “ correspond with the desires 
 and advance the interests of my countrymen here,” and while 
 I do confess that I felt pride in being associated with those 
 holy men, who in times ancient and modern went forth with 
 iill the energies of grace and all the light of learning, from the 
 i( Island of Saints,to do the work of the ministry, I felt a 
 mingled happiness that this labor was to be for the benefit ol 
 my brethern and (heir descendants. I came, Gentlemen, and 
 1 found an I reland—still the same devoted attachment to 
 your faith—the same energetic firmness in carrying out the 
 ameliorations which its ministers suggested—the same fervid 
 
correspondence with the grace of Heaven, which have ever 
 characterised your counlry, have been prominently exhibited 
 by you. For those institutions to which my humble instru¬ 
 mentality may have contributed, you are indebted to your¬ 
 selves ;—to cherish and support them will be the best proof 
 of the flattering estimate which you form of their humble 
 projector. We certainly have achieved some good ; and now, 
 at the moment of separation, let us thank Heaven that if more 
 has not been effected, and if our holy progress be even partially 
 suspended, we cannot accuse ourselves. We may have reason 
 to complain of the same things which opposed the apostle of 
 nations before us; but let us hope that Providence in its own 
 good time, will remedy the evil to which we have been obliged 
 to submit. 
 
 Your reference to the kindly sympathies and enlightened 
 liberality of our friends of other denominations, is, Gentlemen, 
 grateful to me and honorable to you ; and I am proud to add 
 the testimony of personal experience to the truth of the cha¬ 
 racter which you have given of them. Sincere in the profes¬ 
 sion of their own creed, they are tolerant of those of others, 
 and show that however they may differ in dogmas, their cha¬ 
 rity is the same. Wherever it may please Heaven to fix 
 the scene of my future labors, I shall never forget the fraternal 
 spirit which in Halifax has realized the vision that fancy pic¬ 
 tured to the Poet of our creed and country : 
 
 u The various tints unite, 
 
 And form in Heaven’s light, 
 
 One arch of peace.” 
 
 Education has ever been a leading object of Catholic exertion. 
 Your enthusiasm in its support only proves that you are wor¬ 
 thy of its bless[ngs. Your College has realized for your po¬ 
 pulation a greater share of public benefit than its most ardent 
 supporters could have expected: and while my position and 
 relations rendered me unable to contribute little more than 
 my good wishes to its success, I am happy that your appreci¬ 
 ation of its merits makes a worthy return to its Superior and 
 my fiiend, whom I regret to leave behind. And now, Gen¬ 
 tlemen, it only remains for me to say farewell. The poignan¬ 
 cy of regret at parting must be increased by the deep impres¬ 
 sion of your many virtues ; but the same cause shall tend to 
 increase our joy should Heaven so ordain that we shall meet 
 again. The hope of such an event, to which you kindly gave 
 expression, it is not my province to favor. If, however, an 
 overruling Providence shall desire such an event, and legiti- 
 
mate authoiity sanction it, no sacrifice of feeling or of personal 
 interest on my part, shall be an obstacle to my reunion with 
 friends, well beloved and ever to be remember#^. For the 
 present I depart for the head of all Churches. At-the shrine 
 of the Apostle I shall breathe a prayer for the itemal and 
 temporal interests of Nova Scotia. Farewell. 
 
 (Signed) . L. J. DEASE, 0. S. F. 
 
 On motion of the Hon. M. Tobin, senior, seconded by Mr. 
 T. Kenny— 
 
 Resolved, That the Reverend Mr, Dease, on his arrival in 
 Dublin, be requested to place himself in communication with 
 his Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, 
 and the other Dignitaries of our Holy Religion in Ireland, and 
 after a fair, candid, and full statement of our condition and 
 necessities, be guided by their counsel und advice as to the 
 most effectual mode of accomplishing the purpose of his visit 
 to Rome, for the purpose of submitting to the Holy See the 
 circumstances of this Parish—its requirements, its resources, 
 its wants—and the expedients for our relief ; and that such 
 further consideration of our claims be humbly and dutifully 
 solicited as w ill lend to replace the temporal and spiritual 
 interests of our sacred faith in this country upon a basis of 
 support and improvement commensurate with that love for 
 our Church and desire for its security and extension which has 
 ever characterised the Catholics of this Province. 
 
 The Chairman declining to put the above Resolution from 
 delicacy to his Lordship the Bishop, and which the Meeting 
 fully appreciated, it was offered by the Secretary and passed 
 unanimously. 
 
 On motion of Mr. P. Furlong, seconded by the Honorable 
 M. Tobin, jun. 
 
 Resolved, That in order to carry out the purport of the 
 above Resolution, a Committee, consisting of thirty of the 
 Parishioners, be appointed to draw up a Report of the state of 
 this Parish, to be handed to the Rev. Mr. Dease. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 ******** 
 
 On motion of Mr. T. Kenny, seconded by Mr. Maloney- 
 
 Resolved, That Copies of the proceedings of this Meeting, 
 with the Petition to, and Answer from the Bishop, and the 
 Letters and Address to the Rev. Mr. Dease, and Report of 
 
the Committee, be transmitted to his Grace the Archbishop 
 of Dublin, the Bishops of Quebec, Boston, Montreal, New- 
 York, and Charleston, with a request that his Grace and their 
 Lordships will be pleased to exert their influence with the 
 Holy See to remedy the evils of which we complain. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Thomas Ring, seconded by Mr. R. Cun¬ 
 ningham— 
 
 Resolved, That a letter expressive of the obligations we 
 owe to his Grace for the kind interest which he evinced in the 
 selection of the Clergymen which his Lordship sent at our 
 request to this Parish, and of unmingled regret that their situ¬ 
 ation here his been rendered so uncomfortable as to cause the 
 withdrawal of one, and the possible retirement of the other, 
 be addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 Passed unanimously. 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 May it please Your Grace, 
 
 We, the members of St. Mary’s Parish, in the City of Hali¬ 
 fax, Nova Scotia, cantiot permit the untoward event of the 
 Rev. Mr. Dease’s deparluie to pass without using the occa¬ 
 sion it affords us to address your Grace. We earnestly beg 
 your Grace to be assured that the zeal and promptitude with 
 which our application for relief in our spiritual deficiencies 
 was received and complied with in 1838, still remains engraven 
 on our minds in characters too deep to be easily effaced. On 
 this behalf we tender unfeignedly this feeble tribute of our 
 feelings, and offer, in the earnestness ofour hearts, this deeply 
 felt assurance of our gratitude. We are compelled by the 
 dictates of that Faith whose influences must govern us into 
 forbearance and silence amidst hardships and the sense of 
 injustice, to submit to the event which now dooms us to a 
 separation from one of those gentlemen who were induced 
 through your agency, undertaken at our instance, to partici¬ 
 pate in the responsibilities of this mission. The alleged 
 grounds of dissatisfaction and complaint, with the various mat¬ 
 ters since the arrival of that Reverend Gentleman which have 
 produced his present determination, will, we are assured, be 
 fully explained ; and as your Grace will not fail to perceive 
 that in many cases there be much not immediately proper for 
 laical comment, any reference to them would be here out of 
 place. 1 o the statement of cur Parochial condition, which by 
 
129 1 
 
 the earliest opportunity we shall transmit, your Grace’s 
 attention will be humbly invited. The subject will, we doubt 
 not, secure to itself that attention which its seriousness 
 requires. The object of the Rev. Mr. Dease’s visit, whom 
 we thus affectionately commend to your Grace for govern¬ 
 ment aud counsel, will, we know, be explicitly given to 
 vour Grace; and we conclude with assurances, that with the 
 willingness and blessing of Heaven, we shall await in a spirit 
 of patience and submissiveness, the result, 
 
 We have the honor to subscribe ourselves, 
 
 With every sentiment of respect, 
 
 Vour Grace’s humble servants, 
 
 (Signed) MICHAEL TOBIN, Sex., 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 (Signed) L. O’CONNOR DOYLE, 
 
 Secretary , 
 
 A 
 
 The following extracts from the Pariah Records, are refer¬ 
 red to in the foregoing Report : 
 
 Halifax, April 8th, 1841. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Wardens and Electors, held this day, 
 after Parish Mass: 
 
 Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Laughnan and the Warden 
 in charge be requested to address a letter to the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Fraser, respectfully pointing out the nessity for additional 
 Clergymen in this Parish, and expressing the readiness of the 
 
 u 
 
130 
 
 Wardens and Electors to make respectable provision for such. 
 Approved, J. Laughnan. 
 
 B 
 
 Copy of a Letter addressed to the Right Rev. Dr. Fraser, 
 in conformity with the Resolution passed by the Wardens and 
 Electors, on the 8th instant : 
 
 Halifax, 10th April, 1838. 
 
 Right Rev. Dear Sir, 
 
 We are now driven to the necessity of addressing you by 
 the unanimous voice of the Wardens and Electors, at their 
 meeting on Sunday last, 8th inst,—and we are glad to say, 
 none more cordially urged the propriety of an appeal to your 
 Lordship than the Rev. Mr. Laughnan. Every shilling of 
 debt due to the Church has been liquidated, and the whole 
 establishment is in perfect repair. The Revenue is good, and 
 paid with punctuality. 
 
 The want of spiritual aid and instruction is in a great mea¬ 
 sure withheld from the people, by the impossibility of one 
 Clergyman discharging all the various duties required by so 
 numerous a congregation ; and it is our opinion, that to the 
 zeal of our present incumbent in his efforts to satisfy every 
 call, may be attributed the late tedious illness which for some 
 weeks deprived the Parish of his services, and we regret to 
 add, his illness still continues, and that, for the last two Sun¬ 
 days, since the Rev. Mr. Geary retired, we have been without 
 service. It is then our duty to make known our wants to 
 your Lordship, and to entreat your best exertions to procure 
 for us two Clergymen from the old country. We hear of their 
 going from there to every part of the world, and cannot believe 
 that any place is more in want than this part of your Lordship’s 
 Diocese. The number of youth, of both sexes, growing up 
 here, destitute of proper instruction, must produce evils that, 
 to a thinking mind, is capable of creating the most painful 
 alarm. The means necessary to defray the expenses of intro¬ 
 ducing those gentlemen are at your Lordship’s service. By a 
 speedy attention to this request, we can truly say, you will 
 be conferring a blessing upon thousands. 
 
 We have the honor to remain, 
 
 Your Lordships obedient servants, 
 
 (Signed) J. Laughnan, P. P. 
 
131 
 
 Edward Kenny, Warden in Charge. 
 William Skerry, ^ 
 
 Peter Furlong, > Wardens . 
 
 Daniel Creamer, ) 
 
 To the Right Rev. Dr. Fraser, Antigonish 
 
 C 
 
 Halifax, July 8, 1833. 
 
 At a Meeting of (he Wardens and Electors, held in the 
 Small Chapel, after High Mass, present—the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Fraser, the Rev. Mr. Laughnan in the Chair— 
 
 Resolved, That the Warden in Charge be authorised (o pur¬ 
 chase a Bill of Exchange for a £ 100 Sterling, to be handed to 
 the Right Rev, Dr. Fraser, to be by him transmitted to Messrs 
 Wright & Co., Bankers, London, for the purpose of defraying 
 the expenses of two Clergymen from England, Ireland, or 
 Scotland. 
 
 Approved, J. Laughnan. 
 
 Resolved, That the following persons be a Committee to 
 consult with the Bishop, as to the Salary likely to be paid the 
 expected Clergymen, and the duties to be assigned them on 
 arrival :—Rev. J. Laughnan, Hon. Michael Tobin, Senior, 
 Laurence O’Connor Doyle, Esquire, Michael Tobin, Junior, 
 and Edward Kenny, Approved, J. Laughnan. 
 
 I> 
 
 London, 9th, August, 1838. 
 
 Mlssrs. J. & M. Tobin, 
 
 Gentlemen—We beg to acknowledge your favor of the 20th 
 instant., enclosing a remittance, value One Hundred Pound , 
 for the credit of the Account of the Right Reverend Dr. 
 F raser. 
 
 We remain, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient Servants, 
 
 (Signed) Wright & Co. 
 
 £100 on Bank of British North America, 60 days sight, 
 
 P. S. Be so good as to inform his Lordship that we shall 
 have much pleasure in conforming to his instructions, (as con¬ 
 veyed in your letter) as to the disposal of the above remit¬ 
 tance, 
 
132 
 
 E 
 
 Halifax, September, 25, 1339. 
 
 At a meeting of the Wardens and Electors, held in accord¬ 
 ance with a Requisition signedby nearly all the body, to con¬ 
 sider of matters deeply affecting the welfare of the Parish, it 
 was moved by Mr. Creamer, and earned unanimously, that 
 the Rev. Mr. O’Brien be requested to come before the Body, 
 for the purpose of declaring the causes which have led to a 
 determination on his part to leave the Parish. Mr. Michael 
 Tobin, Junior, and Mr. William Skerry, were appointed to 
 wait on the Rev. Gentleman, who immediately acceded to 
 their wishes. 
 
 Approved, J. Laughnan. 
 
 F 
 
 Halifax, October 14, 1839. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Wardens and Electors held this day in 
 the Small Chapel, called by a requisition to the Warden in 
 charge, it was moved and carried that a Remonstrance be 
 sent to the Bishop, having for its object the retention of the 
 Rev.'Mr. O’Brien in this Parish. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee of five, viz:—Hon. Michael 
 Tobin, Daniel Creamer, Michael Tobin, Junior, Edward 
 Kenny, and William Skerry, be appointed to carry the above 
 into effect. 
 
 Resolved, That the above remonstrance be forwarded by a 
 special Messenger to his Lordship without delay, and that the 
 expenses of thejourney be defrayed out of the Parish Funds. 
 
 Resolved, That Mr. Daniel Creamer be requested to con¬ 
 vey the remonstrance to his Lordship. 
 
 Passed nnanimously. 
 
 Approved, J. Laugunax. 
 
 O 
 
 # 
 
 We, a Committee of the Wardens and Electors of St. Ma¬ 
 ry’s Church, appointed at n Special Meeting of that Body, 
 held yesterday in the small Chapel of the Glebe, beg most 
 respectfully to approach your Lordship, on the present state 
 of affairs in this Parish—* 
 
 We have learnt that the Rev. Mr. O’Bwen, with a due 
 sense of spiritual authority, has written for your Lord>hip*3 
 
133 
 
 entire sanction and countenance for Hie institution which is 
 about to be commenced, without which he ^cannot prudently 
 proceed in the undertaking, nor even remain in the country. 
 
 Your Lordship is fully aware of tho anxiety which pervaded 
 this Parish, to procure the assistance of two Clergymen from 
 Ireland, and the pleasure they experienced in the promptness 
 with which your Lordship seconded their views. The selec¬ 
 tion made shows how well our wishes had been carried into 
 effect by Dr. Murray. 
 
 Your Lordship was witness to the brilliant display of the 
 talents and acquirements possessed both by the Rev. Mr. 
 O’Brien and the Rev. Mr. Dease, on the first occasion which 
 offered after their arrival. The long cherished hopes of the 
 Parish were raised to the highest, our ar.ticipations'appearino- 
 about to be realized to the fullest extent, morning and after¬ 
 noon our Church was crowded to exfcess, the happiness of the 
 people was complete. Many who for years had not been pre¬ 
 sent ot Vespers, were now constant in their attendance, and 
 all these effects have been produced by the zealous preachm" 
 and endearing demeanour of the two gentlemen, to whom 
 reference has already been made. 
 
 Surely your Lordship will not now, when the cup of our joy 
 
 is filled to the brim, permit it to be dashed from our lips,_ 
 
 your Lordship will not allow our delight and gladness to be 
 turned into grief and heart scaldings. We have too firm a 
 reliance on the goodness of your Lordship’s heart to doubt its 
 interfering instantly to avert the evil we have so much reason 
 to apprehend. What would our dissenting Brethern say, after 
 they have with such amazement witnessed the change which a 
 few weeks has wrought in the congregation—would thev not 
 deride and scoff at u$? Would we not become a laughing 
 stock to them? In what manner could we address Dr. Mur¬ 
 ray? Could we thank him for having exerted himself to pro¬ 
 cure two gentlemen of high character and eminent ta'ents, 
 and three weeks after their arrival in this land to allow them 
 to quit our shores? 
 
 II umbly and respectfully do \vc throw ourselves at vour 
 Lordship’s feet, to entreat, to supplicate that your Lordship 
 will not suffer the Rev. Mr. O’Brien to depart from us, but 
 that you will be pleased to extend to him your confidence and 
 your support, and that you will confirm him and the Rev. Mr. 
 Dease most fully in their stations. 
 
 Deeply sensible of the vast importance of (his matter to the 
 well-being of Catholicity in this town, and dreading the scan¬ 
 dal which may arise, the Wardens and Electors have deemed 
 
134 
 
 it necessary to intrust this document to Mr. Daniel Creamer, 
 who will present it to you, and to whom we beg to refer your 
 Lordship for a confirmation of our statements We beg also 
 to enclose a copy of the proceedings of the meeting held yes¬ 
 terday. Praying a favorable consideration of our case we, 
 beg to subscribe ourselves, 
 
 Your Lordship’s most bumble servants, 
 
 M. Tobin, Sen. 
 
 M. Tobin, Jun. 
 
 (Signed) Edwd. Kenny, 
 
 Wm. Skerry, 
 
 Dan. Creamer. 
 
 Approved, J. Laughnan. 
 
 K 
 
 TO THE RIGHT REV. DOCTOR FRASER, 
 BISHOP OF TANEN. 
 
 Right Rev. Sir, 
 
 Having been appointed by the Wardens and Electors of 
 this Parish a Committee to confer with you on the subject of 
 procuring two Clergymen from Britain for this part of your 
 Diocese, the great want of which your Lordship sees in the 
 same light that we do. We beg leave to suggest the following 
 as our ideas of the persons most likely to suit the wants and 
 accomplish the wishes of your people here. 
 
 As a preliminary we place in your hands a Bill on London 
 for £100 sterling, which you will please to remit to Messrs. 
 Wright & Co., of that City, for the use of those gentlemen, 
 to provide them with passages, See. One of these gentlemen 
 to be of experience, and well qualified as Pastor, to explain 
 and expound the principles of our Holy Religion to the nume¬ 
 rous and fast rising population, which is now far too extensive 
 (comprehending more than six thousand souls) for the one 
 gentleman to whom your Lordship has assigned the care of 
 this Parish, notwithstanding his zeal, piety, and unwearied 
 exertions, to give them that attention which his love of piety 
 would lead him to wish for. The other, we would think, 
 might he a younger man, who would not object to take charge 
 a Seminary, from which a respectable portion of his salary 
 would be derived. Our Parish School i9 well conducted as far 
 as Writing, Reading, and Arithmetic, but as Parents wish 
 their children to progress, they are /breed to seek other places, 
 not Catholic, for them. 
 
We think a sum of Three Hundred Puunds Currency, per 
 annum, would be freely given, with comfortable lodgings in 
 our spacious Glebe House. We are aware that this compen¬ 
 sation would not be an object for two gentlemen to leave their 
 comforts, but when we know that in all ages of the Catholic 
 Church, the zeal of her Clergy has prompted them to lay eve¬ 
 ry consideration prostrate when an opportunity offered of 
 extending the Kingdom of their Master, and as no part of this 
 continent seems to be more destitute of spiritual help than 
 this Parish of Halifax, the Capital of Nova Scotia, second to 
 none in British North America for numbers and respectability, 
 we entertain and cherish the fond hope that your Lordship’s 
 application to some of the many Bishops, whose names must 
 be familiar tojyou, will not be made in vain. As the Packet 
 with Her Majesty’s Mail, will leave for England in a few days, 
 we trust you w ill embrace the opportunity of writing by her 
 for the purpose of meeting our wishes. Trusting the Almighty 
 may bless and reward your labours, 
 
 We have the honor to remain, 
 
 Your Lordship’s obedient, and 
 Humble Servants, 
 
 John Laughnan, P. P. j 
 Michael Tobin, Sen. | 
 
 (Signed) L. O’Connor Doyle, Committee. 
 
 Michael Tobin, Junior, | 
 
 Edward Kenny, J 
 

REVIEW OF THE PAMPHLET, ENTITLED, 
 "A REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF 
 THE COMMITTEE OF St. MARY’S,” 
 
 BY “ HIBERNICUS.” 
 
 Tiie following short review of the above-named 
 Pamphlet is intended to shew that all its contents are totally 
 opposed to the spirit of obedience that Catholics are bound to 
 shew to episcopal authority, and which Catholics are bound to 
 shew to their Bishops, and that, while much of its contents 
 owes its existence to fiction, or to supposed evil9 no where 
 existing but in the imagination, more will be found to be cap¬ 
 tious, calculated to deceive and lead people into serious error, 
 and other portions of it contain nothing but downright false¬ 
 hood; and this assertion I trust to bear out as briefly as pos¬ 
 sible by the following remarks. 
 
 Catholics are bound to hear their Bishop and Pastors as 
 Christ himself, and not to despise them lest they despise 
 Christ himself, (Matthew, 10 chap. Luke, 10 chap.) and, like 
 good sheep, to know the voice of their shepherd and follow 
 him, (St. John, 10 chap) and obey him—St. Paul to the 
 Hebrews, 13 chap., saying, Obey your Prelate,” &c. Now 
 let me ask any thinking man do the following words, read irv 
 page 1 IT of the preceding extracts from the aforesaid Pamph¬ 
 let, speaking of the Institution of St. Mary’s, betoken the 
 spirit of obedience and deference to episcopal authority con¬ 
 tained in them—“ But unforiunately, like almost every under^ 
 taking engaged in by the Catholics of this community, its use¬ 
 fulness is paralyzed—its very existence put in jeopardy by 
 indifference evinced towards it by the Bishop, and the covert 
 attacks of the Vicar General. Neither do these words, found 
 in page 13 of the Report, &.c. and 113 of Extracts, indicate 
 much of the spirit of submission, u And, for aught we know, 
 that it would seem to cost our ecclessiastical authorities either 
 
 s 
 
138 
 
 in care or in interest, a relapse into the state which the docu¬ 
 ments under their own signatures bear proof of might have 
 occurred.” In page 14 of the Report, and 118 of Extracts, 
 we find these words: “ Discouraged by the ungenerous and 
 repulsive spirit we had experienced from his Lordship,” 
 immediately followed by the following assertion —' l An appeal 
 to the Holy See, the Mother of the Churches presented itself,” 
 suspending their obedience to the Bishop until they hear from 
 the centre of unity; while in page 15 of Report, and 112 of 
 Extracts, vve find it represented as a duty to do so in all doubts 
 and difficulties, and to do so is a proof demonstrative of the 
 certain evidence of Catholic Communion. In page 6 of the 
 Appendix to Report, and 128 of Extracts, we find them to as¬ 
 sume to themselves the full plentitude of Episcopal powers, 
 and making Doctor Murray an instrument to procure the means 
 for them of exercising that power by sending out Priests for 
 them at their request* In pages vii. of Appen.,128 of Exts. we 
 find them also complimenting themselves on all the good they 
 had done, deferring to pay due obedience to the wisdom of their 
 Bishop, and seeking elsewhere other and more wholesome 
 counsel, and expressing a wish—in opposition to the well 
 known determination of the Bishop to have a renewal of the 
 Rev. gentleman’s ministry—a hope which even a legitimate 
 deference to authority does not exclude; when in pages xi, 
 xii, and xiii. of Appendix, and 127-8 of Extracts, we find 
 three Resolutions passed, soliciting counsel and advice through 
 the Reverend gentleman, from the Irish Bishops, how to pro¬ 
 ceed at Rome to effect their rebellious purposes against the 
 Bishop, invoking the Bishops of Montreal, New York, Boston, 
 Quebec, &c M to aid them in their unhallowed work—while in 
 the third Resolution they wish to throw dust in the people’s 
 eyes by making them believe that they and Doctor Murray 
 possess episcopal jurisdiction in this Diocese—doctrines totally 
 at variance with truth and the contents of his letter, as has 
 already been made known to the public. 
 
 Let any one compare these expressions, found in the Report 
 of St. Mary’s Committee, 1S41, with the duties due to a Bi¬ 
 shop as laid down by Christ himself and his Apostles in the 
 Book of Divine Writ, and see on what side a dereliction of 
 duty and filial obedience lie, or, to use language somewhat 
 similar to the technicality or phraseology with which the 
 Pamphlet abounds, compare consequences of conduct on the 
 part of the people, with the principles of obedience laid down 
 in the premises, and aught we know you will come to the 
 untoward conclusion, that the people—not the Bishop—are put 
 
139 
 
 in jeopardy, and not only that the covert attacks otVcpiscopal 
 authority are totally paralyzed, but the want of obedience to 
 it exposed to the utmost scorn and contempt of every thinking 
 man, no matter of what religious persuasion. Not only do 
 the above passages shew a total dereliction of duty to their 
 pastor and Bishop—they are not only captious and calculated 
 to seduce people into error—but they are impregnated with the 
 grossest ingredients of error and malevolence, as we shall pre¬ 
 sently shew. In page 14 of Report, and 119 of Extracts, is 
 inserted that u an appeal to the Holy See is an evidence of 
 filial submissiveness rather than a deviation from discipline,’’ 
 but history, as well the conduct of the Gibraltarites last year 
 teaches us quite the reverse. Henry the Eighth, with a shew 
 of filial snbmissiveness, applied to Clement the Seventh for a 
 divorce from Catharine of Arragon, and for permission to wed 
 Anne Boleyn, and when he was refused it, what became of his 
 filial submissiveness? He shook off the authority of the 
 Pope, and set himself up as head of the Church of 
 England in his place; Bonaparte acted similarly on a similar 
 occasion, and when his filial submissiveness was not accepted 
 of at Rome, fearing, as he said himself, that there were still 
 Ravilliacs and Clements in France, who, in their fanatical zeal 
 might assassinate him as they did Henrys Third and Fourth, 
 he contented himself in avowing the Papal authority, but led 
 the Pontiffcaptive into France,where he detained him for the 
 space of five years; and last year the Gibraltarites showed 
 their filial submission and respect for the centre of unity by 
 applying for the removal of Doctor Hughes, and when their 
 petition was not attended to, buried him in a loathesome 
 prison. Doctor Robert Wanning, author of “ The shortest 
 way to end Disputes about Religion, n and many other well- 
 known Catholic Works, says, “ that the surest sign of a man 
 renouncing the Catholic Religion is when he begins to quarrel 
 with his prayer-book, his catechism, or his Priest.” 
 
 So much to show that a suspension of due obedience to the 
 Bishop until an answer to an appeal from Rome be obtained is 
 an evidence of filial submissiveness rather than a deviation 
 from discipline : so much to their want of due submission to 
 episcopal authority, and that their conduct has been captious, 
 deceitful and false. 
 
 And now let us take a short view of the words of the pamph¬ 
 let entitled, u A Report,” &c. and I ask are the words which 
 give us to understand that the Bishop is totally indifferent to 
 the interest of religion in his extensive Vicariate perfectly 
 consistent with truth, and that he is totally averse to the Insti- 
 
140 
 
 tution of Saint Wary’s ? The Bishop is universally admitted 
 the most laborious Pastor in Nova Scotia, or in the universal 
 Church—doing the duty of a large and populous Parish him¬ 
 self, without even the aid of a Curate; and were he an enemy 
 to the College, he could soon upset it by withdrawing his 
 patronage from it, and telling the members who voted so libe¬ 
 rally for its support that it had no longer his sanction or ap¬ 
 probation, and let it fall to the ground of its own accord. 
 But does the person who has the greatest interest in the esta¬ 
 blishment say that the Bishop is opposed to it ? or does he not, 
 in his letter to the Bishop, term him the best friend the Col¬ 
 lege ever had, has, or, in his opinion, ever will have? We are 
 astonished for his own sake, and for the sake of his own per¬ 
 sonal honour, that he would allow any documents to be printed 
 containing such falsehood without contradicting then). It 
 must be that the Rev. gentleman is endowed with a two-faced 
 physiognomy that he can change at discretion—one when 
 writing to the Bishop—and another when speaking to the 
 adherents of the Schismatical faction, and that he knows 
 how not only to make use of a flower of Rhetoric occasionally 
 but to convert himself into a real one : if not into a precious 
 tulip, into another equally w r ell known to men skilled in Botany 
 and commonly called “ Two faces under a hood.” It is also 
 astonishing that in the petitioning the Irish Hierarchy, the 
 Bishops of Boston, New York, Charleston, Quebec, and Mon¬ 
 treal, they never thought of the Bishops of Scotland, or 
 or Doctor M'Donald, of Prince Edward Island. I suppose 
 they thought that the Scotch Bishops would be partial to each 
 other, and the Irish Bishops, in such a case as this, could be 
 the only impartial persons that could be found to adjudicate a 
 question fairly between a Scotch Bishop and the refractory 
 members of the Isish portion of bis flock; or perhaps they 
 thought that the Irish Bishops, fas ant mfas , w’ould adjudicate 
 in their favor. The latter inference is highly insulting to the 
 Bench of Irish Bishops, and no doubt w f 0uld be taken as such 
 by them did they consider for a moment that it was supposed 
 from the unworthy motives of anti-national bate and anti- 
 Scotch prejudices they would give a verdict in favor of their 
 own countrymen, at the risk of truth, justice and honor—or 
 that they would resemble a certain Irishman who lived in the 
 days of Doctor Burke, in depravity of thought—and who 
 was notorious for his hatred to the Scotch people, and as such, 
 was known to the Bishop, who, on the eve of St. Patrick, 
 came on him unawares as he was charging a rather sizeable 
 port-aide hogshead with what, in the old country, is generally 
 
141 
 
 denominated “ the native,” (in this it is commonly known by 
 the name of “ rum,”) and asked him what he was doing. He 
 replied, “Ain I not preparing to get drunk in honor°of St. 
 Patrick?” “ But are you aware, Teague, that St. Patrick 
 was a Scotchman?” “ No, I am not,” said Teague; “ if I was 
 I would not drink one drop of it in honor of his saintship if he 
 was ten times as big a Saint as what he is, and although it is 
 St. Patrick himself that is in it.” On being assured that he 
 was a Scotchman, he took the keg and all that was in it, and 
 made pieces of it against the side of the wall. Must not the 
 men who would suppose the minds of the Bishops of Ireland to 
 be filled with prejudices so like unto these of this low charac¬ 
 ter, be men of base and vulgar feelings ? That they are, the 
 very fact of their not applying to the Scotch Bishops, or Doc¬ 
 tor M‘Donald, in Prince Edward Island, proves them to be so. 
 If they applied there, they were sure their want of due sub¬ 
 mission to Episcopal authority would be discovered, and their 
 deceitful, treacherous, and lying conduct made known to the 
 entire world at large, and that their falsehood and deception 
 would not obtain a momentary victory over truth, honor, and 
 justice without the mask of hypocritical cant and pharisaical 
 sanctimoniousness being taken off, and its hideous and revolting 
 features exhibited to the disgust and abhorrence of all well 
 disposed and thinking men. 
 
 The doctrine insinuated in page 14 of Report, and 118-19 of 
 Extracts, is also false, captious, and calculated to lead into 
 error—which saith, that we had been taught by our ancestors 
 to apply to the centre of unity in all matters of doubt and 
 emergency,—not one instance of such an application to the 
 Court of Rome being recorded on the page of Irish ecclesias¬ 
 tical history. 
 
 Now as to grievances, so often complained of and for which 
 a redress lias been solicited through the mediation of the Irish 
 Bishops, and the Bishops of Quebec, Montreal &c., they all 
 come to this—that the Bishop did not retain the eminent ser¬ 
 vices of Mr. Dease at the solicitation of the Parishioners, after 
 the Rev. gentleman requested of the Bishop to dispense with 
 him, by giving him his Exeat —to which the Bishop, in a truly 
 spirited letter worthy bis mighty mind and high talents, replied 
 (to be seen in page 13 of the Report, and 121 of the Ex¬ 
 tracts.) It is very probable if the learned gentleman went 
 down himself to the Bishop, in his zeal to serve the people, 
 and made use of nothing like intimidation, with a petition, car¬ 
 rying a tail of nearly one thousand signatures, he pro¬ 
 mising that he would for the future obey his Parish Priest, 
 
142 
 
 the Vicar General, and attend to the sick calls of the 
 Parish, &c., and to become, as it were, a new man, that 
 the Bishop would retain his services; but what giievances 
 have the people to complain of in losing the services of a 
 Priest always first at every place of amusement—at Regattas, 
 Race Courses, and public balls and parties, and Levees at 
 Government House, &c., and never, or scarcely ever, to be 
 found where duty called him ! We may be told that his 
 appearance as he slrutted through the streets added dignity to 
 his religion, and that his endearing demeanor won the affec¬ 
 tions of the people, and that it was a cause of joy to tlie Ca- 
 tholies their Curate dashing through the streets in his easy 
 car, making the Parade to shake and Dutch Town to tremble, 
 and all the people to stare at the idea of his being a most 
 excellent Priest, although his conduct resembled that of a 
 consummate conceited fop, or rather that of a police captain 
 in the old country; while all should avow, in admitting him to 
 be a good Priest, the truth of the old Proverb, <c Tunica non 
 facit monacum —the cowl does Dot make the monk,*’ and that 
 St Francis—in prescribing coarse garments to be worn by the 
 members of his Order, to give them a distinguished claim to 
 the affections of the people, from their avowed respect and, 
 externally expressed in the very shape and materials of their 
 garments, regard for the virtue of humility—most egregiously 
 erred, and that he should have recommended the rich, change¬ 
 able and fashionable costumes of the day, and taken for the 
 motto of his order, “ It is better to be out of the world than 
 out of the fashion.’ 7 Indeed if his deportment w as that of a 
 good Priest, the Venerable Bede Rodriguez, St. Thomas a 
 Kempis, Massillon, the author of Memoriale vitae Sacerdolalis, 
 &c.,must have not only written what was useless, but even 
 what is false and fabulous, and that they are no longer worthy 
 the admiration and observance of the greatest masters of 
 Christian perfection that the Catholic Church ever did or does 
 now possess. It seems, then, that there were more 
 reasons than one to interrupt “ the charities and peace¬ 
 ful quiet of mind so essential to one who had to adminis¬ 
 ter at the altar.” The encomiums heaped on the Reverend 
 gentleman in the lc Report 77 are nothing more than so many 
 censures passed on the venerable Bishop Burke,and bis prede¬ 
 cessor, Doctor Jones, for not founding these institutions w hich 
 in Catholic countries are found to aid so much the propagation 
 of Catholic faith, and which in Ireland generally owe their 
 existence to the zeal of some well-disposed schoolmaster and 
 a few pious persons of the Parish, who, with the patronage of 
 
143 
 
 the Pastor, collect contributions for that purpose. Indeed the 
 Rev. gentleman page x. of Appendix,and 125 of Extracts, ad¬ 
 mits that it is to themselves they are indebted for the exist¬ 
 ence of these institutions through his humble instrument¬ 
 ality. Indeed we were sorry to hear that Dick Somebody, the 
 Coalporter,or Jack W hat-do-you-call him, the truck merchant, 
 accused the Rev. Gentleman of touching, light-fingeredly, 
 some of the cash, and that instead of going to buy books, See. 
 it went to support the dignity of the Church in another way 
 — to procure a magnificent phaeton for the founder of these 
 religious desideratums in the Parish ; and notwithstanding the 
 able defence he made of his own character from the pulpit, 
 still the baneful malcontents of this wicked fable flew in every 
 direction on the wings of the wind, while truth on crutches 
 came slowly limping after in contradiction of the odious state¬ 
 ment. The tracts, spoken of in the same page, coming from 
 the Catholic Institute to scatter among the Catholics of the 
 W ilderness, were well received, when given for nothing, but 
 when they subscribed their money and got neither tracts nor 
 cash in return, it has caused much slander and unseemly 
 conversation. 
 
 In page 10 ofReport, and 116 of Extracts we find an account 
 of the soul-thrilling psalmody of Holy Week, for the first 
 time chaunted under the roof of St. Mary’s. We, who have 
 lived in the largest diocese of Ireland, have never seen these 
 ceremonies performed in the chapels of the towns where the 
 Bishops lived, and we have heard old Priests and Bishops say 
 they never saw them performed before they went to study to 
 the Continent, and never afterwards during their entire lives. 
 If these gentlemen had nothing but the glory of God in view, 
 in performing these ministrations, and in preaching a sermon 
 two hours and three quarters long, according to some—three 
 hours and three quarters, according to others—while many 
 will insist on it that it was not a second of a minnte less than 
 five hours— I trust they will have a rich reward; but if they 
 performed the riles of the Church to exhibit them as 
 a show toj gratify public curiosity, and to make the 
 people believe that they were superior in sanctity to all their 
 predecessors, I would exclaim, in the language of Holy Writ, 
 “ Woe to you, hypocrites, for you shall recieve your recom¬ 
 pense, and the Lord who seeth in the dark shall reward you.” 
 As a Roman Catholic I admire pomp and splendor in the per¬ 
 formance of religious worship—I think no music too exquisite 
 for the purpose—no vestments or plate too rich for the occa¬ 
 sion— I like to see the Churches rearing their heads as so 
 
I'44 
 
 many spacious and immense monuments of ancient and modern 
 greatness, ornamented with masterpieces of the fine arts, 
 whether in the sculptured seemingly-to-breathe marble or all 
 but animated canvass ; and although I would be the first to 
 condemn the Deistical Martignon, in bis Melmolh , where he 
 treats with indecent levity our pomp of religious worship — a I 
 have seen them, " says he, “ on their high festivals, prelates, 
 and abbots and priests in all their pomp of office appearing to 
 the Laity like descended Gods, blazing in gems and gold, 
 amid the lustre of tapers and the floating splendour of an 
 irradiated atmosphere—alive with light and all soft and deli¬ 
 cate harmonies and delicious odours ; till, as they disappear, 
 amid the clouds of incense, so gracefully tossed from the gilded 
 censors, the intoxicated eye dreamt it saw them ascending to 
 paradise —still I would prefer hearing the Priests of my 
 Church extolled for their constant attention to the tribunal of 
 penance, and for the discharge of the laborious duties of their 
 ministry, in language similar to that uttered by Counsellor 
 Sheil, when speaking of the zeal and indefatigable exertions of 
 Father Murphy, late Parish Priest of Carrofin, in the County 
 of Clare — i( 1 now,” said he, “come to Father Murphy, of 
 Carrofin. Where does he reside? In an humble abode, situ¬ 
 ated at the foot of a mountain, and in the midst of dreariness 
 and waste. He dwells in the midst of his Parishioners, and is 
 their benefactor, their friend, their father. It is not only in 
 the actual ministry of the sacrament of religion that he stands 
 as an object of affection among them.—I saw him indeed at his 
 altar surrounded by thousands, and felt myself the influence 
 of his enthusiastic devotion. He addressed the people in the 
 midst of a rude edifice, and in language w hich 1 did not under¬ 
 stand ; but I could perceive w hat a command he has over the 
 minds of his followers. But it is not merely as the celebrator 
 of the rites of divine worship that he is dear to his flock: he is 
 their companion, the mitigator of their calamities, the soother 
 of their afflictions, the trustee of their hearts, the repository 
 of their secrets, the guardian of their interests, and the sentw 
 nel of their death-beds. A peasant is dying.— In the midst of 
 the winter’s night a knock is heard at the door of the priest, 
 and he is told that his parishioner requires his spiritual assist¬ 
 ance—the wind is howling, the snow descends upon the hills, 
 and the storm beating in his face—yet he goes forth-^-hurries 
 to the hovel of the expiring wretch, and taking his station 
 beside the mass of pestilence of which the bed of straw is com¬ 
 posed, bends to receive the last whisper which unloads the' 
 heart of its guilt, though the lips of the sinner should he tainted 
 
 
14 5 
 
 with disease, and he should exhale mortality in his breath 
 Gentlemen, this is not the language of artificial declamation— 
 this is not the mere extravagance of rhetorical phrase. Every 
 word of this is the truth—the notorious, palpable, and un¬ 
 questionable truth. \ on know it—every one of you know it 
 to be true. And now, let me ask you, can you wonder for a 
 moment that the people should be attached to their Clergy, 
 and follow their ordinances as if they were the injunctions of 
 God?” Indeed the Holy Week ofthe year 1841 in the Church 
 of St. Mary’s will not be forgotten by many a person who 
 *was compelled from the denseness of the crowd to remain un¬ 
 til the termination of the ceremonies, particularly if they had 
 more reasons than one to absent themselves, and those of ra¬ 
 ther an urgent and cogent necessity or description. 
 
 In page 8 of Report, and 116 of Extracts, we find an ac¬ 
 count given of the descent of these worthy ecclesiastics on the 
 shores of Nova Scotia, and of their determination to take a 
 speedy llight, after enjoying a costly cruise of One Hundred 
 Pounds at the expense ofthe Church of Nova Scotia, which 
 they would have effected if the people bad not persuaded them 
 to stay for the sake of three, four or five hundred per annum — 
 hem!—we mean for the good ofthe Church ! 
 
 The cause of their determination to leave our shores was, 
 that the Bishop did not appreciate their splendid talents suf¬ 
 ficiently, and that they were not allowed to do as they thought 
 fit: to upset the ancient landmarks of Catholicism and to make 
 new rules and regulations to suit their own notions, &c. 
 
 In page xxi. of Appendix to Report, and 133 of Extracts, 
 we have a great account of the brilliant display -of splendid 
 talents made by these two ecclesiastical heroes in the presence 
 of the Bishop. But did the Bishop admit them to possess 
 these superior talents? On the contrary the Report says he 
 was much disappointed on the occasion, and that he expres¬ 
 sed his astonishment at their very humble acquirements. In¬ 
 deed when we read of the great display of talents made by 
 these gentlemen we cannot but think of a very useful charac¬ 
 ter, in his own way, who used to make his appearance at fair& 
 and markets in the old country with a large placard attached 
 to the front of his hat with these words inscribed on it—“ The 
 great, high-minded, most powerful and illustrious Rat-catcher 
 from Poland,” and exclaim, with regard to our literary friends, 
 
 “ The most talented, scientific, learned and enlightened pair 
 of Dunces from Ireland. 55 Lord Castlereagh was in the habit 
 of saying that there were two kinds of education—one from 
 books and the other from society—and that he preferred the 
 
 v 
 
14G 
 
 latter. Now how could these men have acquired the latter, 
 supposing them in possession of the former 1—one of them, in 
 homely phrase, having never been distant half-a-mile from a 
 sod of turf, before he sailed for Nova Scotia, and the other 
 went to Spain when the potatoes were setting, performing a 
 very short course of studies, as must be supposed from the 
 fact that he was home before they blossomed. 
 
 But nothing could astonish us more than the attacks made 
 on the Vicar General—the most laborious, vigilant, and atten¬ 
 tive pastor now to be found in the Church of Nova Scotia— 
 always ready at a call to attend the sick and to console the* 
 afflicted—for years the laborious Priest of the Parish—in a 
 word, the poor man’s Priest. They who would attack his 
 character or impeach it with apathy or indifference to the cause 
 of religion might be well termed, in the language of Saint 
 Cyprian, “ fit instruments in the hands of the devil for the 
 most infamous of purposes.” Protestants and Catholics admit 
 him to be a most excellent character. It is the opinion of 
 many that the celebrated Judge Haliburton designated this 
 most zealous and laborious pastor under the assumed name of 
 “ Father John O’Sbaughnessy,” in his well-known and univer¬ 
 sally admired literary production entitled The Clockmaker, 
 where, in the 24th number, he introduces Mr. Slick, thus 
 speaking:—“ About the hottest time of tbe dispute I was at 
 Halifax, and who should I meet but Father John O’Shaugli- 
 nessy, a Catholic Priest. I had met him afore in Cape Bre¬ 
 ton, and had sold him a clock. Well, he was a leggin’ it off 
 hot foot. “ Possible!” says I, “ Father John, is that -you ? 
 Why, what on airth is the matter of you 1 —what makes you in 
 such an everlastin’ hurry—drivin’ away like one ravin’ dis¬ 
 tracted mad?” “ A sick visit,” says he—“ poor Pat Lanni- 
 gan—him that you mind to Bradore Lake—well he’s near 
 about at the pint of death.” “ I guess not,” said I, “ for I 
 jist heerd tell he was dead.” Well, that brought him up all 
 standin’ and he bouts ship in a jiffy', and walks a little way 
 with me, and we got a talkin’ about this very subject. On his 
 prolonging the conversation somewhat out of the way, ‘‘Fa¬ 
 ther John,” says I —“ I can’t stop,” says he; ‘‘I must see 
 that poor critter’s family—they must be in great trouble—and 
 a sick visit is afore controversy in my creed.” This panegy- 
 rick pronounced by a learned judge, and one of tbe most lite¬ 
 rary characters of the day—whom the late Lord Mayor of 
 Dublin terms the keenest discerner of human nature now liv¬ 
 ing—must be most acceptable and pleasing to all the true 
 friends of religion—to the Bishop—the well-affected clergy of 
 
147 
 
 ihe Diocese, and lo the Vicar General himself, and most galling 
 and afflicting to his enemies—the soi-disant honorables and 
 great gentlemen of the day. 
 
 Were the Vicar General at home in the old country it would 
 be the joy and glory of his flock to see him raised to the 
 highest honors of the Church, and they would publicly pro¬ 
 claim that he only received his deserts. This same class who 
 now prefer the greatest stranger—a man whom they never 
 saw—to their laborious and pious pastor, who may well be 
 termed the poor man’s priest, would exalt and rejoice at his 
 prosperity in Ireland or in any part—save and except Gibral¬ 
 tar—of the old country. What a change does not climate and 
 the acquisiton of a little wealth make in the minds of Irish¬ 
 men! How true the English proverb, u Tie one Irishmen to 
 a spit and you will get another to roast him !” 
 
 Were such a man as the Yicar General of Nova Scotia in 
 the old country, and such fellows as the would-be aristocracy 
 ofNova Scotia toattempt to insult him, the poor creatures 
 iiving in the woods of Mr. Moore’s Captain Rock , on potatoes 
 and point would rush out of their wretched huts or cabins and 
 make the paving stones fly in their faces, or have revenge on 
 them.—How changed is not that class on coming to this coun¬ 
 try—how different from what they are at home! Were the 
 Vicar General to cgnduct himself at home as he does here, 
 he would not only be beloved and respected by the high-up 
 Protestants as he is here, but he would be almost literally 
 adored by the Catholic Lords and Nobles of the land; and 
 were he to depart this life, weeping orphans and their almost 
 distracted (at such a loss) friends would accompany his re¬ 
 mains to the grave in thousands, and, in the language of Shak- 
 speare, “ raise a monument of widow’s tears to his memory.” 
 But as it is, the friends of the Vicar General, (and he has thou¬ 
 sands of friends in this Colony—many of them judges of the 
 land, as well as others the first in rank, family and fortune in 
 the country,) fling the gauntlet of defiance at his enemies and 
 dare them to their beards tu bring a single charge—even a 
 trivial one—against the well-known character and unblemish¬ 
 ed reputation of the Vicar Genera!. We not only defy them 
 to do so, but even that most extraordinary personage who, at 
 the election of a new Pope, is said to represent his Satanic 
 Majesty and who is termed Jidvocalus Diaboli —the Devil’s 
 lawyer—and who brings all imaginable crimes against the 
 Pope elect, from which he must be fully acquitted before his 
 nomination takes place : we not only defy the Devil's Advo¬ 
 cate, but the Devil himself, in the shape of a poor lawyer in 
 
i 
 
 MS 
 
 Halifax, and all his adherents, whether laymen^or ecclesias¬ 
 tics, in the great city, and in the vicinity of its suburbs, with 
 Legion or a host of Evil Spirits at their back; and of this truth 
 J trust the Bishop and Catholic Clergy of Nova Scotia will 
 give a proof practical as well as demonstrative before long. 
 
 “But we have nothing to say against the Vicar Generel 
 except that he he does not U9e his influence to make the Bi¬ 
 shop live in Halifax. This is all we have against him. We 
 must confess he is always willing and ready to do his duty on 
 the spot—that he is sober, modest, and a most excellent cha¬ 
 racter.—And why not make the Bishop live at Halifax? 
 This grieves us, and this one thing alone.” 
 
 But why should the Bishop live in the Capital of Nova 
 Scotia, when he can scarcely get a Priest to accept of the 
 vacant Curacy—many having declined. Is not the jail very 
 near the chapel ? and are not Scotchmen very few in the Capi¬ 
 tal of Nova Scotia 1 and who knows but the good mob, with 
 the potatoe-faced aristocracy at their head, like their friends 
 in Gibraltar, might have the Bishop some fine morning in jail, 
 before the Governor or the Protestants of the town would be 
 aware of it—but who, no doubt, would immediately liberate 
 him. 
 
 If you have nothing now to say against the Vicar General 
 you must have very lately pulled in your horns, for I find you, 
 in your letter to the Archbishop of Dublin—page xiv. of the 
 Appendix to your Report, and 128 of Extracts—returning him 
 thanks for his attendance to your applications for relief, in 
 your spiritual deficiences—which it was not in his power to 
 grant, and which he did not grant to your application, as to 
 be seen in the letter signed “ D. Murray,” in page 67 of the 
 “ Letters of Hibernicus,” preceding this Review—and there 
 complaining of hardships and injustice in being deprived of (he 
 eminent services of a man who of his own accord, called for 
 his Excal, and then thought—to be humoured like a child— 
 to get it back, as if it were a rattle or a toy, when he called 
 for it. The letter concludes by saying— l< With the willing¬ 
 ness and blessing of Heaven we shall await in a spirit of pa¬ 
 tience and submissiveness the result.” Now I want to know 
 whether the Vicar General, who did all the duty of a Parish 
 Friesland Curate, or the Curate, who did neither the duty of 
 Curate or Parish Priest—and who did nothing but batten in 
 ease and doze dull care away—had the greater right to com¬ 
 plain of hardships ?—or which of the two underwent the real 
 hardships—Ihe ^ icar General who did all the duty and did not 
 
149 
 
 complain, or the Curate who did not undergo any duty and 
 bitterly complained as if he did ? 
 
 Of the hardships of the people, they are truly great. I am 
 sure of it that one half of them would not express as much 
 sorrow for his departure as the poor woman in Ireland did for 
 her drunken husband when she saw him descending to the 
 grave— Cf Paddy, my dear, I would not wish your death for the 
 best pair of brogues (strong shoes) I ever put on my feet;” 
 and, what is worse, u Hope” does not tell 4t a flattering tale 
 that joy will soon return.” Like “ patience on a monument 
 smiling at grief,” they must remain until the end of time ex¬ 
 pecting the return of this good shepherd to the fold he has of 
 his own accord and free will deserted. 
 
 1 see no person that has a right to complain of injustice 
 save and except the Vicar General, who did all the duty, while 
 the Curate, who did nothing, got all, and still gets the entire 
 merit of it. Well, indeed, might he exclaim with poor old 
 Virgil, on a certain Poetaster claiming the honor of compos¬ 
 ing what it never lay in the poor fellow’s power to do— 
 
 tC Sic vos non vobis indificalis aves 
 Sic vos non vobis fertis araira boves 
 Sic vos non vobis melificates apes 
 Sic vos non vobis vtllera fertis oves ”— 
 
 As the birds do not build nests for themselves, or the oxen 
 plough for themselves: as the bees do not collect honey for 
 themselves, or the sheep bear fleeces for themselves, neither 
 do you — illustrious and laborious pastor of Halifax—earn lau¬ 
 rels for yourself: an ecclesiastical drone endeavours to rob 
 you of the honor of them. But as well might the little wren 
 
 _who l*id himself in the eagle’s feathers when it was agreed 
 
 upon by the feathered race that whatsoever bird should fly the 
 highest should be the king of birds, and who, when the eagle 
 ha*d declared he had ascended to the highest point of altitude 
 in his power, shot out from under his wings and, soaring aloft 
 over him, exclaimed “ I am the king of all birds!”—claim to 
 himself that honor as any almost ineflicient clergyman to claim 
 a superiority over the Vicar General in the discharge of cleri¬ 
 cal duties. 
 
 As to the insinuations thrown out by these words, Many 
 cases not immediately proper for laical comment,” all we shall 
 say is, that the father of lies and deception must have taken 
 possession of the man or men that wrote it. While the words 
 “ with the willingness and blessing of heaven we will await in 
 a spirit of patience and submissiveness the result,” convince 
 
150 
 
 us that the men who penned them are downright Atheists, and 
 that they do not believe that there is a God.—Men who never 
 go to confession or communion, who never received the sacra¬ 
 ment of Matrimony or got their children baptized according 
 to the rites of the Roman ritual, to speak in a manner that 
 would seem to make the world believe that they were over¬ 
 burdened with religion and that they should immediately die 
 with grief or rather of spiritual exhaustion, and become out¬ 
 rageous with religious phrenzy if (heir “ spiritual deficiences” 
 were not relieved in a seasonable time. 
 
 The infidel Marat, during the French Revolution, ascended 
 the pulpit in the Church of St. Roche, at Paris, and cried out 
 if there was a God to strike him dead on the spot.; but when he 
 saw the knife with which he was stabbed in the hand of a wo- 
 man, Jane Cordelet, who 9oon despatched him,be shrieked and 
 yelled for mercy, and conjured her to spare his life. These 
 infidels, although I am sure in their hearts, with the 
 fool mentioned in Holy Writ, they say €t there is -do God,” 
 would act with similar cowardice, and, Marat-like, if they 
 could put all the Priests and Bishops in the world to death, to 
 answer their own base and selfish purposes. People who 
 make use of such language as the letter to his Grace the 
 Archbishop of Dublin concludes with would, at least, act the 
 part of Edward Cantwell in the play called The Hypocrite , 
 and warn their flock to place no confidence in them on the day 
 of judgment, but to amend their lives in time and by no means 
 to think to stick in their skirts on that day, for most assuredly 
 on that day they would wear spencers, (in this country called 
 round-abouts or jackets) which have no skirts. They have 
 done all they could to make the people rebel against their law¬ 
 ful pastors, and to substitute persons of their own choice in 
 their place. 
 
 Time, and time only, will unfold the workings of this nefa¬ 
 rious affair, and that very soon, no doubt; and the page of the 
 history of the Church of Nova Scotia will furnish many an 
 important lesson of instruction to thousands not yet born: 
 “ that it is foolish folly to meddle with things holy.’’ Priests 
 are edged tools not to be meddled with— lc Touch not the 
 Lord’s anointed,”—and that there can be no bitterer curse 
 than that used in a part of the Province of Ulster, north of 
 Ireland — (< May you never die until you are brought to dis¬ 
 grace by a Priest.” 
 
 In page 4 of Report, and 113-14 of Extracts, we find an 
 account of the origin, powers, installation, inauguration and 
 inode of convocation of the body known by the name and title 
 
of <l The Wardens and Electors , 99 and should have the most 
 profound respect and veneration for the high and important 
 offices they have been called upon to discharge in the house of 
 God, did not the present Pope Gregory in his Brief to Dr. 
 Hughes, Gibraltar, dated Rome, 12th August, 1841, thus ex¬ 
 press himself:—“Now as to what concerns their office we 
 wish no one to be ignorant that it altogether depends 
 upon the authority of the Bishop, and that nothing can ever 
 be done by Church Wardens except what shall have been 
 committed to them by the Bishop to do.” 
 
 In page 11 of Report, and 117 of Extracts, we find the 
 Church contracted in width and length with as much ease as 
 they added nearly fifteen years to the Bishop's life, and pinned 
 him in perfect health, although 150 miles distant, to a bed of 
 sickness. 
 
 In page 12 of the Pamphlet, we find mention of the Bishop 
 making a visitation of only six days in the Parish. In the 
 old country a Bishop scarcely ever stops more than three days 
 on his visitation in the largest Parishes, and we never heard 
 the people complain; nay, we oftentimes saw them going on 
 their knees in the mud to atk their blessing, as they went 
 aloDg, and they as good people, if not belter, than the great 
 folks who complain of the Bishop’s very short stay—in our 
 eyes very long stay—in the Capital of Nova Scotia. 
 
 In pages 12 of Report, and 117-18 of Extracts, we find the 
 Bishop giving his blessing to the building of the new chapel, 
 but the fact of his giving a donation of fifty pounds omitted. 
 I would call the attention of all my readers in a particular 
 manner to this avowal admitted in the Pamphlet, because the 
 enemies of the Bishop have denied this fact, and endeavoured 
 to convince the poor, ignorant and illiterate Irish that they 
 were the friends to Religion, and the Bishop the enemy to it, 
 being opposed to the building of Catholic Chapels—one of the 
 greatest falsehoods ever told, and which no people would be¬ 
 lieve but the very lowest and most depraved of the worst class 
 of Irishmen. 
 
 In page 4 of the Report, and 113 of Extracts, we find men¬ 
 tion made of the first Parish Priest (Dr. Jones,) of the Capi¬ 
 tal of Nova Scotia, but not a word said about the singular 
 manner in which he occasionally addressed his flock, whom he 
 frequently accosted in these words— “ You refuse of three 
 wars.”—A mode of salutation equally as novel hut much less 
 endearing than that of Dean Swift, in the Church of Laracorr, 
 when his entire congregation consisted of the clerk whom he 
 used thus in a most endearing manner to address—“ My Dear 
 
152 
 
 Roger! 0 This worthy ecclesiastick did not wish to leave his 
 bones among them, and although he left a large sum for the 
 education ol Irish Catholic youth for the Priesthood, he never 
 left a farthing for the benefit of the Catholic Church of Nova 
 Scotia. The Rev. Mr. Burke, his successor, soon felt the 
 effects of breathing the atmosphere so oftentimes exhaled by 
 these warlike heroes, u the refuse of three wars, 0 and was 
 soon obliged to decamp in consequence of some serious dis¬ 
 turbance in the feelings of the congregation. 
 
 When Doctor DePlessis appointed the late Bishop Burke to 
 be Parish Priest of Halifax—and we have it from those who 
 oftentimes heard him relate it—he said to him, §< The Devil is 
 in Halifax—you must go drive him out of it!”—which he effec¬ 
 tually did, for he did not again make his appearance there un¬ 
 til after his death. During the interval that intervened be¬ 
 tween hU death and the appointment of the present Vicar 
 General he has made some incursions, but did not take up a 
 permanent residence there until within the last three years. 
 Who w ill drive him out of it now, and prevent him from ever 
 returning thereto is a matter of serious inquiry. All we hope 
 for is that when he is banished he may never come back, and 
 that he may be sent, never to revisit us again, to the place 
 mentioned by the Poet, whither he had been hurled by the 
 arm of Omnipotency— 
 
 -“ With hideous ruia, 
 
 Down lo bottomless perdition— 
 
 There to dwell in penal tire and adamantine chains. 
 Who dare defy the Omnipotent lo arms P 9 
 
153 
 
 
 NOTA BENE. 
 
 The first of the foregoing series of Letters was com¬ 
 menced on the 19th day of December, 1841; and the last, 
 which forms an Appeal to the Irish inhabitants of Nova Scotia, 
 respecting the conduct of the Schismatics of Halifax was 
 ready for the Press on the first of April following. The 
 Review of the u Report of St. Mary’s Committee’* was also 
 ready for publication on the 1 *5ih April, 1842 ; and the entire 
 should have long since made its appearance in a more perma¬ 
 nent form than the ephemeral existence which the columns of 
 a newspaper can give, had Hibernicus met with the coopera¬ 
 tion which he confidently expected, in certain quarters where 
 he applied for means to carry his intentions into effect. Al¬ 
 though he addressed many letters, during the course of last 
 spring, to several individuals who ought to have considered 
 their own honor and interest personally at stake in this matter, 
 all his applications have remained unanswered to the present 
 hour, with one solitary exception : that of the letter addressed 
 to the Rev. Mr. M‘Leod, Broad Cove, who, in the kindest 
 manner, remitted one pound as his subscription towards the 
 intended publication of the Letters and Review in a pamphlet 
 form. 
 
 It appears that those gentlemen who have signalized them¬ 
 selves for their indifference to the publication of the letters of 
 Hiberxicus, would most anxiously, if in their power, keep 
 the horrid attempt to murder Bishop Fraser's character in 
 the dark, least their own indolence on the occasion (in omit¬ 
 ting to advocate his cause, or to make his wrongs known,) 
 should be exposed to the eye of public scorn', and deservedly 
 meet with popular indignation and contempt. In their conduct 
 to Hibernicus they much resemble the dog in the manger, 
 who would neither eat the hay himself nor suffer the ox to eat 
 —they did not choose (being perhaps convinced that they were* 
 
 v 
 
154 
 
 no witches at the pen,) to take any part in this business them¬ 
 selves, therefore nobody else should. They considered it bet¬ 
 ter that their Bishop should be sacrificed in his character, 
 dearer to him than his existence, by the hands of the Schis- 
 maticks of Halifax, without the least struggle to save him, 
 than that an exertion, of which they well knew they were not 
 themselves capable, should be made by Hjberkicus. Some of 
 them appear to have been dastardly enough to entertain the 
 opinion, that no struggle was better (no matter how righteous 
 soever was the cause in which they were engaged,) than one 
 which might, by possibility, prove unsuccessful; and that they 
 were, therefore, justified in looking on, with their arms folded 
 and their pockets tightly buttoned, while the scbisrr.atical 
 jockeys were walking over the race-course, without daring to 
 make any attempt at startling their high-bred horses, least, 
 if they failed in ejecting them from their saddles, and crack¬ 
 ing their necks, they might run the chance of having their 
 own collar-bones broken. Or, rather, their whole care in this 
 business was for the inviolability of the aforesaid tightly but- 
 toned-up pockets, and they preferred the dishonor and degra¬ 
 dation of their Prelate and themselves to parting with a little 
 of the precious treasure deposited therein—a view of the sub¬ 
 ject which is confirmed by Lord Byron, when he tells us— 
 
 “ Kill a man’s family and he may brook it. 
 
 But keep your hand out of his breeches pocket.” 
 
 Others of them would give as their excuse, that they could 
 not believe it possible that such a thing as the nomination of 
 a coadjuto p Bishop by the plebs of Halifax could take place, 
 without the advice, consent, or approbation of the Bishop, 
 Vicar General and Clergy of the Diocese, and that this was 
 the reason that they rested quietly upon their oars. Others 
 of them by their conduct appear to resemble certain cats men¬ 
 tioned in the Primer, of whom it is said, “ that the cat loves 
 fish, but will not wet its paws to get them in like manner, 
 although they love Doctor Fraser exceedingly, and would 
 even die for him, they would not lose a six-pence in his behalf 
 —resembling in that respect the faithful mastiff who would 
 die for his master, but were he to attempt to take a bone 
 out of his mouth, would tear him to pieces. Brutus justified 
 his killing C®sar by alleging that he did it, “ Not that he 
 loved Caesar less but that he loved Rome more.” These gen¬ 
 tlemen may justify their standing idly by and seeing the Bi¬ 
 shop’s character murdered by saying that they did so, “ Not 
 that they loved the Bishop less but that they loved Mammon 
 more.” 
 
155 
 
 To those good gentlemen who were so kind as lo measure 
 the corn of Hirernicus by their own bushel, and say that he 
 wanted to make money, or what they classically termed (to 
 show their acquaintance w ith the elegant modern polite litera¬ 
 ture of the day,) a Maria Monk affair of the publication of his 
 letters, all he says is—“ Honi sort qui mal y pense —Evil to him 
 who evil thinks,” or shatne on the dogs that so expressed 
 themselves. He will give ail the profits which may accrue 
 from their publication, to any of the above alluded-to sapient 
 salraps for a “ bawbie which in this country may be estimat¬ 
 ed to stand for a groat, or four pence, and a thousand compli¬ 
 ments, or rcmercinienis , into the bargain: a sufficient recom¬ 
 pense in itself for any of their services, if one can judge of the 
 value which they will set on them from the well known respect 
 they entertain for the person of the author. 
 
 They may perhaps take another mode of defence for their 
 pussalinimity, and argue thus :—“ Why should we defend Doc¬ 
 tor Fraser’s character? It required no defence, and to 
 attempt one would be to admit that it did, therefore we made 
 none : and this putting pounds, shillings and pence ont of the 
 question, as well as the toil of writing and composing long arti¬ 
 cles, (a task of which no one will do us the injustice to believe 
 us capable,) is a sufficient reason, and a conclusive argument 
 why we did not attempt to defend or assist any other person 
 in the defence of his reputation, when so unjustly assailed. As 
 to the insult offered to Bishop Fraser, in trying to eject him 
 from his See, and the handsome compliment paid to thirty 
 thousand Scotchmen, and descendants of Scotchmen, by inti¬ 
 mating to them that, because they are Scotch, they can never 
 enjoy episcopal honors in Nova Scotia, and that they must be 
 treated with the same ignominy that the blacks are in the 
 slave States, we have nothing to do with it. We never expect 
 to be Bishops ourselves, being conscious that though it should 
 rain down mitres from Heaven, not ona of them will be found 
 to fit our heads, and are, therefore, determined to imitate the 
 good Vicar of Bray, and to say, with regard to our little Pa¬ 
 rishes, (which we will for the future term ‘ Vicarages of Bray,’ 
 
 No matter what King or Bishop shall rule, we will always be 
 ready to turn cat in pan, provided we be permitted to enjoy 
 the emoluments and titles of the Vicariates of Bray.’ But 
 what, in fine, could we do if we were ever so well inclined? 
 The Schismaticks of Halifax overpowered us completely, and 
 we became dumfoundered.” To this frivolous objection III- 
 bernicus would be willing to make as frivolous an answer— 
 well worthy of it: 
 
160 
 
 ** Do what they do in France— 
 
 Kick ofl’your shoes and dunce!’’ 
 
 Why did you riot hold meetings, make speeches, and pass Reso- 
 luf ions in favor of your Bishop ] Fill up entire columns of the 
 newspapers with the lengthy and frothy ebullitions of your 
 bottled eloquence, which no doubt would sparkle as it burst 
 forth from your lips like champaigne just uncorked, and shoot 
 in torrents to the ceiling with myriads of beautiful and many- 
 colored glittering sparkles, of varied tincture, and of the most 
 resplendent effulgence. When your long speeches would appear 
 in the public prints, no one would for an instant suspect that 
 they were not made by yourselves, or that they were not 
 extemporaneous effusions, although they smelled ever so 
 strongly of the lamp and had been frequently delivered before 
 a looking glass, or in the presence of a multitude of cabbage 
 stumps in your gardens, in order to enable you to suit the 
 action to the word and the word to the action more gracefully: 
 so that you might gather confidence to deliver your labored 
 harangues, if not to an audience of cabbage-stumps, to a peo¬ 
 ple of admirable simplicity and patriarchal lives and morals, 
 although most delicately sensitive to every thiDg that concerns 
 their national honor and independence. And, indeed, the man 
 should have a head formed on a cabbage-stump who could not 
 acquit himself with credit on this occasion, when addressing, 
 in the remote parts of the country, the descendants of the 
 ancient Highland clans of Scotland—Scotchmen by birth, and 
 Scotchmen by descent. Why did you not inform the Scottish 
 people that they were going to be treated like blacks, and to 
 be stigmatized as unworthy episcopal honors because they 
 were Scotch, and because they had preserved the ancient Ca¬ 
 tholic Religion through the long and gloomy night of trial and 
 persecution] Why not accost Doctor Murray, through the 
 ttiedium of the public prints, in language the most dignified and 
 courteous, and worthy the high character of that exemplary 
 Prelate, and ask him “ How would he like that the Butchers, 
 Coopers, Smugglers, Fishmongers, Rag-merchants, and bro¬ 
 ken-merchants of Dublin, should apply to Dr. Fraser to pro¬ 
 cure the appointment of a coadjutor Bishop for that See, with¬ 
 out his knowledge or consent, and by the influence of Doctor 
 Fraser with the Court of Rome, succeed in getting such 
 appointment made ] Or how would not his feelings be lace¬ 
 rated if Doctor Fraser was to consecrate such coadjutor Bi¬ 
 shop, without using the form of courtesy of acquainting the 
 venerable Archbishop of his purpose Could you not then 
 remind that exemplary prelate that in the insult offered to 
 
Doctor Fraser all the Bishops of the earth were insulted, for 
 they were all made liable to be similarly treated? Could he 
 not be told that the words inscribed by Adam Blackwood on 
 the tomb of Mary, .Queen of Scots, were equally applicable to 
 the case of your injured Bishop : c< Eodcm nefario judicio , et 
 Maria Scoiorum Regina moric naturally ct omnes superstites reges 
 plcbii facti mortc dvili mulctantur —By the same infamous judg¬ 
 ment both Mary Queen of Scotland is punished with death, 
 and all-kings living are made liable to a civil death.” By the 
 6ame unjust degradation, both the Bishop of Halifax is depriv¬ 
 ed of his sacred and inalienable rights, and all the Bishops of 
 the Church are made liable to the same deprivation;? Why 
 not ask Doctor Murray did he wish to have his name handed 
 down to posterity associated with that of.James, Earl of Mur¬ 
 ray, the natural brother of Queen Mary, as one of the bitter¬ 
 est enemies of Scottish honor and independence? The one by 
 preventing a Scotch Bishop from finishing his course in N.Scotia 
 in peace, where more than half the Catholics are Scotch, their 
 numbers being upwards of 30,000, (while the French Catholics 
 reckon seventeen thousand, the Indians two thousand, and the 
 Irish Catholics no more than ten thousand,) without intruding 
 an Irish Bishop upon him, not only unasked and uncalled for 
 hut forced upon him without his knowledge or approbation. 
 The other the enemy to Scotland and its ancient monarchy,by 
 procuring the murder of the representative of monarchy itself, 
 the beautiful, amiable and proverbially accomplished Mary, 
 Queen of Scots? Why did you not respectfully, but firmly, 
 request him, if he did not wish to be so reputed, to pause in 
 the course which he was pursuing, and before he consummated 
 such a deed of cruelty and injustice to inquire into the charac¬ 
 ter, conduct, and motives of those who were urging him on ; 
 recalling to his mind the words of the Poet— 
 
 Aspiring to be Gods if angels feU, 
 
 Aspiring to be angels men rebel.” 
 
 Why did you not blazon forth the doings of the Butchers of 
 Halifax, and their descendants before the whole hierarchy of 
 Ireland, England and Scotland, and before the Court of Rome 
 itself, to prevent that most sacred body, the College of Cardi¬ 
 nals and the very sovereign Pontiff himself, the successor of 
 St. Peter, from becoming objects of odium and detestation in 
 a Protestant Colony, the inhabitants of which look upon them, 
 no doubt unjustly, as willing abetters in that deed of cruelty 
 and injustice, and thereby have the prejudices of their early 
 education in the highest degree confirmed and fixed. 
 
Hibernicus is now compelled by a sense of honor, and the 
 respect which he feels for Ireland, and lor tlie bones of Irish¬ 
 men now mouldering in the dust, to send one of these pamph¬ 
 lets to each of the Bishops of Ireland, England, and Scotland, 
 as well as a certain number to Rome, in order to do all in his 
 power to stay the onward career of the Schismaticks of Hali¬ 
 fax, and to make their unhallowed proceedings known in every 
 quarter. He regrets much that he could not, for want of 
 pecuniary means, have issued them six months ago, when, but 
 for a deficiency in the sinews of war, they might have been 
 printed and circulated to some good effect. That he has taken 
 the affair deeply to heart will be admitted when he tells the 
 public that he has now in the Press another volume, in octavo, 
 consisting of 250 pages, at least, which he has entitled 
 HYPOCRISY UNMASKED, 
 
 Or the foul plot of the Irish Schismatical Anti-Scotch 
 Episcopacy-hating faction, alias 
 
 The Haligonian Gibraltar Junta in Halifax, A. D. 1842; 
 with a lengthened Address to the Roman Catholics of Nova 
 Scotia, Scotchmen by birth and Scotchmen by descent, 
 which is intended to see the light, immediately after the ap¬ 
 pearance of the Letters of the “ Irish Catholic 5 ’ of Sydney, 
 C. B., which have also been committed to his care for publi¬ 
 cation. 
 
 Many blunders and typographical errors have crept into 
 these sheets, from the haste obliged to be used in supplying 
 the press with such a mass of matter in so short a space of 
 time, as well as from the circumstance of the residence of the 
 author at a distance from the place of publication and the 
 numerous onerous duties attendant upon the various avoca¬ 
 tions of his profession, w hich have deprived him of the proper 
 facilities for correcting the proofs.—He pledges himself, how¬ 
 ever, that such errors shall be avoided in the forthcoming 
 work. 
 
 To bis Protestant friends Hibernicus begs leave to return 
 his sincerest thanks for their patronage towards him on this 
 occasion, without which he could not attempt to publish these 
 Letters, and he earnestly requests of them to continue to aid 
 him in his efforts to put down one of the most odious conspira¬ 
 cies ever formed, and of which we might say, apostrophising 
 the day on which it whas first developed in the words of the 
 French historian, Perifix, when he speaks of the fearful day 
 of St. Bartholomew—“ The most atrocious act which ever 
 has disgraced, does or will disgrace the annals of time.” 
 
169 
 
 Although Hibernicus professes himself to be an Irishman, 
 in the fullest sense of the word, and a Roman Catholic from 
 motives of conviction which appear to him as clear as self- 
 evident propositions in Geometry, he solemnly declares he 
 does not know, nor has he ever known what it was to enter¬ 
 tain a single sentiment of what is called bigotry or intolerance 
 towards any class of religionists who choose to differ from him; 
 but that he holds it to be, not only in theory but in practice, 
 the inalienable, as it should be the indisputable, right of all 
 Christians to worship their Creator in the manner they deem 
 most acceptable to him. If he deemed it possible that he was 
 infected with the smallest particle of bigotry, he would cast it 
 from him in the words of the immortal Bard of his country, 
 as that highly gifted man expresses himself in his poem on 
 “ Intolerance 
 
 “ Enough for me, whose heart Iras learned to scorn 
 Bigots alike in Rome or England born. 
 
 Who loathes the venom wheresoe’r it springs— 
 
 From Popes or Lawyers, Pastry-Cooks or Kings; 
 
 Enough for me to laugh and weep by turns, 
 
 As mirth provokes or indignation hums. 
 
 As Stanley vapors or as France succeeds, 
 
 As Melbourne proses or as Ireland bleeds.” 
 
 P. S. As it is probable that many of the enlightened Pre- 
 latef of Ireland, England, and Scotland, may wish to commu¬ 
 nicate with Dr. Fraser on the treatment, apparently so unkind 
 and sad, which he has received from the Court of Rome—in 
 the intrusion upon him, without his advice or consent being 
 asked, and even without the courtesy of informing him of the 
 step which was about being taken, a stranger for a Coadjutor, 
 a measure which has in reality been effected through the male¬ 
 volence and misrepresentation of a knot of upstarts, the low¬ 
 est order of Irishmen, who are now located in Halifax, and 
 who have richly earned the title of the Halifax Gibraltar Junta 
 —we beg leave to subjoin the address of that venerable Pre¬ 
 late- 
 
 Right Rev. Doctor FRASER, 
 
 Bishop of Halifax, 
 
 Antigonishe, 
 
 County of Sydney, 
 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 We trust we do not intrude ourselves too much on the indul¬ 
 gence of a kind and generous public in requesting of them to 
 contribute their mite in the way of subscriptions for the forth¬ 
 coming work of Hibernicus, entitled “ Hypocrisy Unmasked,” 
 
1G0 
 
 &c ., which lias for its object the honor and independence of 
 the Scottish nation, with equal, impartial and unbiased justice 
 in^Sll matters appertaining either to Church or Slate to men 
 of all countries, colors and religions. The following gentle¬ 
 men are requested to collect subscriptions in their respective 
 neighbourhoods and Townships:— 
 
 NOVA SCOTIA'. 
 
 Pictou—Rbderick McDonald, Esq., Editor of the Observer. 
 Halifax—C. W. Wallace, Esq., President of the H. Society, 
 The Editorsof the Times, Novascolian, and Recorder. 
 Samuel Carten, Esq., (of whom it may be truly said 
 that on a late occasion he was, like MilttffiV Ariel, “ Among’ 
 the faithless, faithful only found'.”/ 
 
 Go. Colchester—Hon. Alexander Campbell. 
 
 “ Cumberland— — Simonds, Esq., Minudie; 
 
 “ “ J. Chandler, High Sheriff, 
 
 “ “ George Bergmann, Esq., Pugwash, 
 
 “ Lunenburg—John Creighton, Esq., M.P.P. 
 
 “ Queen’s—James It. Dewolfe, Esq. M.P.P., Liverpool. 
 
 “ Sydney—George Brenan, Esq. J.P, Antigonishe, 
 
 CAPE BRETON. 
 
 The President of the Highland Society, 
 
 R. Huntington, Editor of the Spirit of the Times. 
 
 Rev. Mr. M'Leod, Broad Cove, 
 
 Go. Richmond—Arthur Brymer, J. P. L’Ardoise, 
 tf Norman M‘Neil, Esq*, Arichat. 
 
 NEW BRUNSWICK. 
 
 Roderick C. M'Donald, Esq., Prebidertt of Uie Highland Society, 
 John R. Fitzgerald, Esq., Editor and Proprietor of the Mediator'. 
 
 p.e. island: 
 
 Hon. Charles Young, President of the Highland Society, 
 
 Patrick Walker, Esq., Charlotte Town. 
 
 $tzj z ' It is requested' that the Subscriptions be forwarded as 
 soon as possible to Roderick M‘Donald, Esq., Editor of tbc 
 Pictou Observer. 
 
 Pictou, N. S. December 15, 1842. 
 
 
 rh r? 
 
K 
 
 erruLu' 5 
 
 
 
 
 ML7^7