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In 1836, Bishop Macdonell
foresaw the coming storm, and in an address to the Catholic and
Protestant freeholders of the Counties of Glengarry and Stormont, from
which I have previously quoted, exhorted them at the elections then
imminent faithfully to discharge their duty to their Sovereign and their
country by electing men of sound and loyal principles. There was no
mistaking where the Bishop stood. He left no room for doubt as to that.
Your gracious and
benevolent Sovereign sent you out as his representative a personage
distinguished for abilities, knowledge and integrity, to redress all the
grievances and abuses that had crept into the Government of this
Province since its first establishment but instead of meeting him with
cordiality, and offering their cooperation in the important work of
reform, what do the radicals do? Why, they assail him, like hell-hounds,
with every possible abuse. indignity and insult, and would feign make
you believe that they are your friends and the friends of the country,
although implacable enemies of yourselves, your religion and your
country: and this they proved by stopping the money which the Government
had been giving for some years past towards building and repairing
Catholic churches, supporting Catholic schools and maintaining Catholic
clergy.
"It has been with
Government money that the Catholics of Glengarry have been able to
proceed with the Parish Church of St. Raphael's, after allowing it to
remain in a state of decay for the space of sixteen or seventeen years,
from the inability of the parishioners to finish it; and it has been by
the aid of Government money that almost every other Catholic church in
the Province has been brought to the state it is now in—and further
advances were ready to be made towards completing them, when, by the
false representations of the Radicals, orders came from home to stop the
issuing of the money, and the consequence is that the greater part of
those churches are left in an unfinished and insecure state.
"At the same time that
those Radicals who aim at the destruction of our Holy Religion are loud
in their complaints against Government for affording me assistance
towards establishing it on a permanent foundation in this Province, they
are cutting and carving lucrative situations for themselves, and filling
their own pockets and those of their champion O'Grady" (an abandoned
Priest whom the Bishop was obliged to excommunicate) "with your money
and that of your fellow subjects. It was for this purpose that they
stopped the supplies last session and thereby prevented the issue of the
money which was to be laid out on public roads, canals and other
improvements of the Province."
1837-8.
It was stated at the time
that during the absence of the regulars, Bishop Macdonell had charge of
the garrison at Kingston. The eastern portion of the Province, however,
except on the occasion of the raid made by banditti from the United
States in the neighbourhood of Prescott, was not much disturbed during
the rebellion. Rebels did not appear to be indigenous to its soil.
Glengarry was able to spare two regiments to assist in quelling the
revolt in Lower Canada, while two others were on duty elsewhere. Some of
the Priests of the Diocese, however, amongst whom was the Bishop's
nephew, the late Vicar-General Angus Macdonell, had a painful duty to
perform, as many of the American invaders, notably Von Schultz and
others who were taken at the Windmill, were sent to Kingston, and such
of them as were Catholics, including Von Schultz, had to be prepared for
death by them. They were obliged to attend Fort Henry with the Sheriff
to select for their ministrations such of the prisoners as were from
time to time doomed to the last penalty. Sheriff Macdonell was supposed
to have lost his reason from the shocks produced by the trying scenes he
was almost daily obliged to witness in the discharge of his duty.
THE BISHOP ESTABLISHES
REGIOPOLIS COLLEGE
Bishop Macdonell had
experienced great difficulty in obtaining properly educated men for the
priesthood, which want seriously retarded the improvement of the
Catholic population. He was fully aware that the evil could be remedied
only by the building and endowment of a Seminary for the education of
his clergy. He obtained an Act of Incorporation from the Legislature and
appropriated a piece of land for the erection of a suitable building. At
a meeting convened by the Bishop at his residence on the 10th October,
1837, it was resolved that the Bishop, his nephew, Vice-General Angus
Macdonell, and Dr. Thomas Rolph should proceed to England for the
purpose of collecting funds for the erection of a Catholic College in
Upper Canada. It was the anxious desire of the Bishop that a Priesthood
should be raised in the Province, fearing God, attached to the
Institutions of the country, and using their assiduous efforts to
maintain its integrity; until such an establishment was founded he could
not be responsible for his clergy as he would wish to be. Such was the
reason for the foundation of Regiopolis College, but it does not appear
to have realized the hopes of its eminent founder, and has for many
years past been closed. |
