crowds to the church on Sundays and holidays, and receive
frequently the sacraments."



*Mand. Queb., Vol I. fSee Appendix C.

^Brook Watson. (N.S Hist. Soc. Vol. II).



50

The good priest takes no credit to himself for this exemplary
conduct of his people, but expressly says : "I found them such on
my arrival," and this notwithstanding they had been without a
pastor for several years during the English occupation. His Sunday
work is thus described : "On that day we always sing a High Mass,,
and I give a plain instruction according to my poor power, and
adapted to the capacity of my audience ; at two o'clock we sing
Vespers, and give benediction of the most Holy Sacrament, after
which I teach catechism to the children."

A school for girls taught by a sister, and one for boys gave testi-
mony to the enlightened zeal of the Missionary, and showed the
Church to be in Acadia what she had been in Europe, the pioneer
of education as well as of religion. We know not where, or how, this
brave old priest died.* Every true lover of his country will hope that
the dust of such a man has mingled with and sanctified the soil of
Nova Scotia.

The above bright picture was soon darkened by the smoke of
battle ; the peaceful hamlet was again harried by war ; the Church
and Sanctuary were made desolate ; Port Royal was captured by
the English in 1690, but soon reverted to the French. In 1701
Sister Chauson, of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Cross,
gives a description of the place, which is in sad contrast with the
pleasing one, drawn by the Bishop fifteen years previously, and
makes us realize the many drawbacks to the propagation of the
faith in Acadia. Rev. Mr. Geoffroy, a Sulpitian, had sent Sister
Chauson to Port Royal to teach, and this is what she has to say :
"Our Church is in frightful poverty, its only covering is straw, the
walls are of logs, and instead of glass for the windows we have
paper. There is no bell, and the people are called to prayer by
the beating of a driim. * * * There is no crucifix, no picture r
no censsr, no vases for the wine and water, no finger towels ; there
is no drawer in which to keep the two or three old sets of vest-
ments, and a couple of much used albs. But what is still more
deplorable, the most Holy Sacrament is kept in a small wooden



*See Appendix C towards end tor a knowledge of his fate.



51

box, composed of four boards nailed together. This is the Taber-
nacle in which the God of heaven and earth resides. The English
carried off a suitable Tabernacle that was here, also the sacred
vessels and the rest. In a word everything is wanting. Assuredly
our loving Saviour was not more poorly housed in the stable at
Bethlehem than here-"*

Stirring times soon followed: Port Royal in 1710, was again
captured, and in 1713 Acadia was ceded to England, and the
people promised freedom of worship. The French population
rapidly increased, and by the year 1755 they numbered many
thousands.! Ere that all the Micmacs had become fervent Catho-
lics, and a few Irish and Scotch had come to take up and continue
the mission of the Church.

The tragedy of the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, is a blood
stain, which like Pilate's hands, cannot be cleansed by all the water
of the Bay of Fundy, nor covered over by the subtile ingenuity of
modern apologists, The English government is not to blame ; the
foul deed was the work of New England, of men who were brave
against a defenceless peasantry, but who, later on, were either too
cowardly to fight for their king, or too craven to strike a blow for
liberty. By a most grotesque misnomer they are known in history
as "Loyalists." It is true many of the actors in that tragic scene
had the grace to be ashamed of the part they had played. When
they strode amidst the smoking ruins of Grand Pre, with no enemy
to fight, and no friend to protect, when they saw the dumb animals
seeking in vain for their former masters, and heard again, in
imagination, the wailings of the little ones so ruthlessly cast forth,,
and recalled the agony of wives and children vainly pleading to be
allowed to join their husbands and fathers, their sense of manhood
was aroused. They awoke to a keen realization of the dastardly
nature of this cruel act, so heartlessly executed, and they knew
they had been engaged in an expedition unworthy of soldiers.
Had they forseen the apologists of this expulsion, they would



*L'Eglise D Amerique du Nord Vol. II. fSee Appendix D.



52

doubtless have cursed their folly in not allowing ihe cold veil of
silence to hide, undisturbed, the ghastly deed.

But the Church never dies. In this case her numbers were
decreased, her children scattered, still there was left a seed in Israel.
Father Descenclaves with some refugees took shelter in the woods
of Argyle. Father Maillard was permitted to minister to the
Indians, and a few Acadian families near Halifax. In 1760 he
was made Administrator of Acadia, and died in Halifax in 1762.
His'many good qualities had won the admiration of his former
enemies, and he continued the work of his ministry from 1755 until
his death. Owing to the high esteem in which he was held by all
classes, and to the fact that he was buried in the Protestant cem-
etery, it was supposed by some that he had fallen from the faith.
As the*e was no Catholic burying ground in Halifax until several
years after his death, he had perforce to be laid to rest in the Pro-
testant cemetery. His ecclesiastical superiors bear testimony to
his well spent life. This is a sufficient vindication. He was suc-
ceeded by Pere Baillyin 1768.





CHAPTER X.
THE CHURCH IN HALIFAX.

SSI VHLATION, growth and development, are character-
istics of all living organisms ; they are verified alike in plants
and animals without destroying their identity, or effecting
any change in the essentials of their nature. The tiny
oak through assimilation develops into a mighty tree ; the wailing
infant, by a not unsimilar process, waxes into a strong and vigorous
man ; the various stages through which they have passed may be
enumerated ; but the tree was always the same oak ; and the child,
the boy, the man always identical with himself in nature and being.
So too the Catholic Church in its long life of nineteen centuries,
both as a whole, and in Us various parts, has been engrafting wild
shrubs on the living vine, or assimilating the various tribes of man
kind, thus growing in numbers, developing in organization and
methods of teaching, in harmony with the requirements ot succes-
sive ages, yet always the self-same in faith, in obedience and means
of holiness. Hence what we call the Church in Halifax does not
differ from, nor is it a distinct foundation from the Church of Acadia.
It is simply a continuous development of the mustard seed sown at
Port Royal in 1604. At first its membership was exclusively French;
then the Micmacs were engrafted on the true vine ; later on Irish
and Scotch Catholics, in small numbers it is true, came to increase
its growth. By the expulsion of the Acadians the preponderance
of French members was indeed destroyed, but not the Church.
Its vital powers were unharmed, and growth and development
began again. The centre of its activity, however, was changed, as
well as the language of a large majority of its members ; hence we
speak of it as the Church in Halifax.

In the year 1 749 Halifax was founded, and soon became, what
it has ever since remained, the chief harbor and stronghold of the



54

British Empire in America. In its early history we can easily discern
the sinister influence of the Plymouth Rock Puritan, To him in
great part must be ascribed the expulsion of the Acadians, as well as
the penal laws against Catholics.

In 1758 the Government at Halifax undertook to provide for the
spiritual as well as the temporal well-being of the province, Its
first Act was one to "Confirm titles in land." Section second of
this Act, however, says : "Provided that no Papist hereafter shall
have any right or title to hold, possess or enjoy any lands or tene-
ments, other than by virtue of any grant, or grants from the Crown,
but that all deeds, or wills, hereafter made, conveying lands or tene-
ments to any Papist, or in trust for any Papist, shall be utterly null
and void."* Not even his mother's grave could the poor Catholic
Irishmen own. Yet he came and throve. He appears to be as
insuppressable as his religion.

Having thus enacted that no Papist could become a landholder
by ordinary course, the Government went on to pass an " Act for
the establishment of religious public worship in the Province, and for
suppressing popery." It did indeed seem fitting, that after having
so happily provided for the temporal good, the pious Government
should look to the spiritual interests of the inhabitants. The pre-
amble has the true puritanical flavour of cant, cruelty and callous-
ness. Section first decrees the establishment of the Church of
England, but grants liberty of conscience to Protestant dissenters,
Calvanists, Lutherans and Quakers, and exempts them from taxation
for the support of the Church of England.

But no such concession could be made to the Church of all the
Ages. No ; it was decreed that "every popish person exercising any
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and every popish priest, or person exer-
cising the functions of a popish priest, shall depart out of this Pro-
vince on or before the 25th of March, 1 759. "fThat it might be known
this was no idle notice, all such were warned, chat if found after
that date, upon conviction, they would be adjudged to suffer per-
petual imprisonment, escape from which would be deemed felony



*Laws of Nova Scotia. Vol. I. flbidem.



55

"without benefit of clergy." No chance for body or soul, so far as
the Government could prevent it.

Lest the compassion of individuals should frustrate this law, it
was further enacted that persons harbouring, relieving, concealing
any popish priest, should be fined fifty pounds, and be adjudged to
be set in the pillory, and to find sureties for good behaviour, at
the discretion of the Court. All this seems incredible. We at first
refuse to believe that the kindly act of giving a meal, or a night's
shelter to a hunted famishing priest, could condemn, even a strict
Protestant to the pillory. Yet we have only to read 32 George 2nd
to be convinced.

With such stringent laws, backed by a large military force, "Papal
aggression '' appeared a remote contingency. But the Church refuses
to be suppressed. Her vital force is indestructable and it cannot re-
main unfruitful. It was created for action and propagation, and no
power of man, or devils, can impede this law of its being. The
Church has broken down and triumphed over persecutions innumer-
able ; her assailants die and are forgotten ; their lighted torches
burn out ; their racks are broken ; their dungeons razed to the
ground ; their shackles mouldering to dust ; but the benign Mother
of Nations, in her strong gentleness lives on, unfearing and unde-
terred, as ready to-day as of yore to enter the lists against tyrants,
and to champion the rights of conscience. In a cold material age
when men are accounted as so many factors in an arithmetical
computation, and the supernatural made the gibe and the sneer of
a superficial generation, the Church presents herself to the consider-
ation of men of goodwill, as the one spiritual force that the mael-
strom of modern unbelief and animalism has been as unsuccessful
in destroying, as were the old time persecutors with fire and sword.
Her history even in this Province, if studied aright, will prove that
she is of God.

Notwithstanding the fierce enactments of 1758 (we do not call
them laws,because being essentially unjust they had no binding force)
the ubiquitous Irish Catholic came serenely to the front. In 1759,
Mr. Tobin, many of whose numerous descendants have held high
place in the commercial and social world, came hither to fix his abode.



5d

Some Catholics had preceded him, others quickly followed.* The
Abbe Maillard, who had made peace with the English in 1759, and
who had been ministering to the Indians, and had disarmed their
wrath against the English, was now living in Halifax, and surrepti-
tiously attended to the spiritual wants of the Irish Catholics. The
days of the catacombs were renewed for the Church in Halifax ;
yet the work went on, and we may reasonably conclude that the
exemplary conduct, and pure faith of to-day, are part of the bless-
ings purchased by the sacrifices of the early Haligonian Catholics.
In 1766, the government, still under malign foreign influences,
passed an Act regarding education. By it the aspirant to the
pedagogic throne and birchen sceptre, should first be examined
by the Church of England minister of the place, or where there
was no minister, by two justices of the peace, a certificate having
been obtained, and the prescribed oaths having been taken, a
license to teach was granted, and the village master went forth
conquering and to conquer. But it would never do to allow a
Catholic to mount the tripod and wield the rod of discipline. No!
it was cautiously provided, that, "if any popish recusant, papist, or
person professing the popish religion, shall be so presumptions as to
set up any school within the province, and be detected therein,
such offender shall for every such offence, suffer three months
imprisonment, without bail or mainprize, and shall pay fine to the
King of ;io."f So far as these diabolical statutes could effect it,
the Catholic was to be landless, pastorless, and teacherless. Body,
soul and intellect were to be starved ; the price ot intellectual food
was apostacy. What was better calculated to degrade a race, and
yet who will dare assert that the Irish race, poor though they were,
and unlettered as they were forced to be, were ever either ignorant
or degraded ? No ! their faith saved them from degradation, and
more than supplied the lack of mere book knowledge.



*In 1760, according to a letter of one of its inhabitants, of the 3000 then in
Halifax, "one-third are Irish, and many of them Roman Catholics' 1 (Flaliburton
Vol II., 'page 12-13). We ma y be l uite sure > t l ie ma j r P art f tnem were R-
Catholics.

fLawsofN.S., Vol. I,



57

In the meantime whilst the number of Catholics in Halifax was
quietly augmenting, many of the exiled Acadians had made their
way back to Nova Scotia, and had settled at St. Mary's Bay, and else-
where. Rev. Mr. Bailly came in 1768, at the request of the Gover-
nor, urged thereto by the Indians, to continue the work of Abbe'
Maillard. He was young and vigorous, and full of zeal, qualities
that were essential to the missionary who had so vast a field to
cultivate. Governor Franklin received him well, as did also his
successor Governor Campbell. Writing from Halifax 23rd May,
1769, to the Bishop of Quebec, he points out the difficulties of the
Mission owing to the people being scattered in all directions. On
22nd July, of same year, he says he has experienced many favours
from Governor Campbell and his Council ; that they had obtained
for him an allowance of one hundred pounds from the King. We see
by this that the atmosphere of Halifax was always a dissolvent of
bigotry. The firebrand never flourished in the old city by the sea.
There is some subtle broadening influence in the ocean air which
makes the Haligonian intellectually large brained, and develops
generosity of spirit. Nowhere on this continent perhaps, were
more stringent penal statutes enacted, and nowhere did they so
quickly become obsolete : and nowhere has there been so little
persecution, and so much kindly feeling between Catholics and
Protestants. A few bigots occasionally came, as they still come
hither. Thus Father Bailly writing from Halifax, 24th April, 1771,
says: "The Government appears opposed to the increase of mission-
aries, and all this opposition comes from the Presbyterians and the
people of New England. Last winter I said mass for three months in
this town, when suddenly I had to seek a secluded spot six miles
from the town in order to celebrate on Sundays.* I need not
have done this had I consented to shut the door of the barn,
wherein I had been saying mass, against all, except the Acadians
and Indians. * * * The Governor continues to honour me
with his protection, as do also the principal persons. * * * Two
Presbyterian ministers have preached publicly against me ; I have



*Les Acadiens Apres leurs Dispersion, Abbe Casgrain.



58

been named in the papers. They say if the King is permitted to
place a priest in Nova Scotia, it will have to be tolerated should
he put one in Boston. The establishment of a piiest in Nova
Scotia is, they say, the disgrace of the present reign."* Poor men!
how they would have groaned in anguish of spirit had the veil of
futurity been drawn aside, and the priests and churches of Boston and
Nova Scotia of to-day been presented to their gaze. Surely thought-
ful men can learn a great lesson from this letter of the young mis-
sionary.

Father Bailly was succeeded shortly after this by Pere Labrosse ;
and within a not lengthy space of time Father Bourg, the son of one
of the expelled, came to minister to the returned exiles. This latter
zealous missionary did noble work for many years in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick, and kept the Altar fires alight until the dawn of a
new era for Holy Church, as well as for the persecuted, though faith-
lul Acadian. The Abbe* Casgrain in his paper on the "Acadians after
their dispersion," recognizes that a new era began about the year
1783, but he has failed to attribute its rise to its true cause ; or to
point out to whom the Acadians, especially of Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island, are indebted for missionaries.

It was indeed a race of martyrs who came to the aid and rescue
of the sorely afflicted Acadians, but they were not their brothers in
blood. Some Frenchmen it is true were procured later on ; but the
men who broke the fetters, throttled the persecuting bigots,
asserted and enforced the rights of all Catholics, and made the
Acadians what they are to-day, were the sons of Erin, mailed in the
unshaken faith of their martyred ancestors. The Archives of Quebec
and Halifax prove this.



*This secluded spot, or literally as Father Bailly has it, "a hole in the coun-
try" was Birch Cove. In 1769 Father Bailly baptised a child there. That
same year he advised some Acadian families who lived near Halifax to go to
Minudie and take up land. This they did, as a daughter of one of them informed
Mr. P. Gaudet, to whom I am indebted for these facts. We can safely con-
clude, therefore, that Birch Cove was the spot. It is about six miles from town;
it was at that time most secluded ; there were Catholics there as the Register
of Baptism proves. The barn in which he had celebrated mass, previously was,
as local tradition has it, owned by Mr. Michael Tobin, and stood on South
street, almost opposite "Hillside House." As already mentioned, Mr. Tobin,
came to Halifax in 1759.



CHAPTER XL

THE CHURCH IN HALIFAX, (continued}.

'OR years the small colony of Irish Catholics had been slowly
but surely increasing in Halifax. Irishmen are popularly
supposed to be volatile of disposition, and changeful of
purpose ; yet history will bear us out that they come to stay wher-
ever they once fix an abode. More than this ; they soon take a
leading part in public affairs, or business enterprises. With a keen
sense of justice they disregard unjust statutes, falsely called laws,
and thus quickly force them into abeyance. The Englishman's
standard of right and wrong is the law ; an Irishman's, the dictates
of justice; the Englishman may be law-abiding, but the Irishman
is justice-loving. It is this correct placing of justice above law,
that fitted Irishmen for the glorious work they have achieved, of
breaking down tyranny within the Empire, as well as in many parts
of the United States.

In 1783, the Catholics of Halifax, composed of loyalists and
emigrants, chiefly from Munster, though still a very small minority,
deemed it time to demand their rights. Accordingly, William
Meany, John Cody, James Kavanagh, John Mullowny and John
Murphy, "on behalf of themselves and others, His Majesty's natural
born subjects, professing the Roman Catholic religion in this Pro-
vince," addressed a petition to Governor Hammond, asking for a
repeal of, or amendment to, the penal statutes. The obnoxious
clauses of the "Act for confirming titles to land." and of the one
"regarding public woship," were repealed. Catholics ,could now
hold and acquire land, and could build churches and have their
priests to minister to them, provided they (the priests) had a license
from the Governor, and took a certain prescribed oath. Con-
science was not violated by taking this oath, although some of its
clauses were insulting, in that they assumed Catholics had held



60

certain tenets, which existed only in the diseased imagination of
their enemies. This act of justice was performed in 1783, not in
1782 as some have thought. We have consulted the statutes
themselves, so there can be no doubt on this point. The five brave
men who had sent the petition, now addressed a letter of thanks
to the Governor, and a circular to their fellow Catholics abroad.
No time was lost : the highly eligible site, whereon now stands St.
Mary's Cathedral, fronting on Spring Garden road, and running
from Harrington to Grafton street, was purchased, and on Monday,
ipth July, 1784, the frame of the first Catholic church was raised
in Halifax, "in presence of a great concourse of gentlemen and other
people."

It was an unpretentious structure, to which some ten years
later a spire and bell tower were added. It stood back from
Grafton street, on which it faced, quite a distance, occupying
almost the site of the present chancel of St. Mary's Cathedral.
The intermediate space was used as a burial ground, to which
there was an entrance from Grafton street ; but the approach to
the Church was from Barrington street, along the northern line of
the property. This would correspond with the south wall of St.
Mary's boys' school. At the south-east end of the church there
was a small vestry ; and south of that a cottage for the priest was
built in 1785 86. The plot of ground between the house and Bar-
rington street, now occupied by the convent of the Sisters of
Charity, and land attached thereto, was a garden in which potatoes
and other vegetables were grown for many years. In an old book
of accounts we find, payments made for "digging potatoes in the
priest's garden" as late as 1805.

We can only faintly imagine the joy that filled the hearts of the
few faithful Catholics of Halifax, and those scattered along the
western shore as far as Prospect, as well as the various groups of
Acadians, when their modest " House of God " arose, and they
realized that the night of their spiritual desolation was passed, and
the hateful shackles broken beyond possibility of repair. Their
Church was small and bare, yet it was their own. They had secured
ample space for future needs ; they knew growth was a quality of








PQ

a.
o



CQ



s-

0)

cq



ra



61

the Church. With their undying faith they may have had visions of
the stately pile which should one day take the place of " Old St.
Peters." for the prince of the Apostles was the Patron of the first
Church. Application for a pastor was made to the Bishop of Cork,
and in 1785 the Reverend James Jones, of the Order of Capuchins,
came to assume charge of the Catholics of Halifax. Father Bourg,
who was Vicar-General for Nova Scotia, saw his credentials and
gave him faculties. September 4th, 1785, he wrote to the Bishop of
Quebec announcing his arrival and forwarding a letter from the
Bishop of Cork. This prelate offered to supply missionaries until
such time as the youth of the country could be educated for the
work. Bishop d'Esglis in his reply " blesses the mercy and provid-
ence of God towards the good Catholics of Halifax in giving them
a priest according to their desires. " He asks Father Jones to say
for him "a thousand kind things to your people of Halifax ; you can-
not be guilty of excess in the expression of the sentiments of tender-
ness and attachment which I cherish for this remarkable portion of
my flock. Their devotion to the Faith caused them to obtain from
Parliament that which many others would not dare to ask ;
nor did the expenses of succeeding in this great project, nor those