SECOND ARTICLE OF THE " GAZETTE

(The Gazette,/////^ 25, 1888.)

On every ground from which the question can be regarded, it cannot but be considered unfortunate that the present Premier of this province should have undertaken the revival of the Jesuits' claims. There is probably no country in the world in which the society of Jesus has enjoyed so fair a reputation and so large a share of good-will from the people generally without distinction of creed, as have fallen to their lot in Canada. Their piety, humanity and courage are associated with the most heroic and romantic period in our annals. " Amid the snow of Hudson's Bay, among the woody islets and beautiful inlets of the St. Lawrence, by the council fires of the Hurons and Algonquins, at the sources of the Mississipi, where first of the white man, their eyes looked, upon the Falls of St. Anthony, and then traced down the course of the bounding river as it rushed onward to earn its title of '' Father of waters," on the vast prairies of lilinois and Missouri, among the blue hills which hem in the salubrious dwellings of the Cherokees, and in the thick canebrakes of Louisiana — everywhere were

* For positive claim of the Jesuits see pnge 50.

found the niembers of the society of Jesus." The story of their trials and triumphs on this continent, and especially wiihin the limits of our own land, is one of the most interesting and instructive in the records of missionary labor. Their devotion and heroism cast into the shade (at least, for Canadian readers) those less commendable qualities and proceedings which, in other parts of the world, aroused the suspicion or the anger of governments and communities. If we except certain rivalries and ambitions which marked some passages in their career, the members of the order in Canada have never forfeited that respect which is due to the faithful ])rosecution of noble aims. When Father Casot died in March, 1800, he was regretted by rich and poor alike. The Quebec Gazette described his death as a public calamity, and such it doubtless was to hundreds of poor people who had benefited by his charities. At that time the order had no legal recognition in any Catholic country. Even before the taking of Quebec the storm of indignation that had been threatening them in Europe had begun to burst upon their heads. The members of the order had been driven by Pombal from Portugal and its colonies in September, 1759 ; f ranee and Spain followed the example a {yiw years later (1767), and Napoleon and the Duchy of Parma expelled them in the ensuing year. The final blow fell in 1773, when the society was sui>pressed by the Pope (Clement XIV), Being thus denied the protection of Roman Catholic Christendom, the Jesuits betook tliemselves to Prussia and Russia, in the latter of which countries they made their head quarters. A congregation of cardinals was a[)pointed to take possession of the abandoned tempor.ilities of the society. The general, Lorenzo Ricci, having died in jri^on in 1775, a Pole named Cyernicwic/ was elected in his stead with the title of Vicar-General. Two other Poles held the same title, the latter of whom, Francis Xavier Kareu, was created *'Cieneral \\\ Russia "in iSoi by Pope Pius VII. It was not till 1S14, however, that the society was restored to corporate legal existence.

Only a small number of Jesuits remained in Canada after the capitulation. Fathers Noël, Maccpiet, de Villeneuve, (ilapion. Well ami Casot are among the names on the list handed down to us. They tiught school down to the year 1776. \'oung persons were given instruction in reading, writing and ariihmeti': ; and there were no restrictions as to admission. All who chose to send ther children were free to do so. Thus, by the testimony of the Bishop of Quebec, members of the order were recc gai/ed even after the publiiatinn of the brief of supi)ression, and it was not until the last of them had died that the Crown proceeded to take possession of the estates. This was in accord.nce with a suggestion of Solicitor-General Wedderburne, who, in

giving his opinion on the state of Canada, in December, 1772, said that it was " equally just and expedient in this instance to assert the sovereignty of the King, and to declare that the lands of the Jesuits are vested in His Majesty, allowing at the same time to the Jesuits now residing in Canada liberal pensions out of the incomes of their estates." Under all the circumstances, it can hardly be denied that the Government dealt generously with them.

As to the addresses presented again and again by the people of the province, or their representatives, touching the disposal of those estates, all that they asked for was that they should be devoted to the diffusion of education. In the petition of 1828 it is incidentally stated that the " said order was never the proprietor of the said college and estates, but merely its depository." In 183 1, after a vague or evasive reply had been more than once returned to interpellations on the subject, an act wa? passed appropriating the revenues of the Jesuits' estates exclusively to educational purposes. If the disposition of the property thus determined on did not meet, as to detail, with universal approval it was generally acquiesced in as the best solution attainable of a difficult problem. It was in 1842 that the Jesuits renewed the broken tradition of their name in New France. Fathers Chazelle, Martin, Tellier, Hanipaux, Luiset and Duranquet arrived in Canada in the month of May of that year. In September, 1848, the college of St. Mary was opened in this city and higher education was once more, to some extent at least, in the hands of the order.

Canada is now*an independent province, and all the fathers are, we believe, natives of the country. The good which the order has accomplished during the last half century is gratefully acknowledged. As the old Jesuits began with the Christian heroism of Brebœuf and Jogues, and closed with the gentle charities of Father Casot, so have their modern successors acquitted themselves with honor in their more tranquil role of educationists. They have already received substantial evidence of the esteem in which they are held and of the value set on their services to society. The Protestants of Canada regard them with little of that distrust which is their portion sometimes even in Catholic countries. As for their relations with the orders of their own church and with the secular clergy it is not for us to meddle with them. We cannot but feel, nevertheless, that, even on the grounds of worldly wisdom, Mr. Mercier is badly mistaken if he dreams of serving his former tutors by raising from its grave this dead issue of a day that is past. Had Canada remained a French province, need we say that such a claim would have been unheard of? That, doubtless, is beside the question, and comparisons are proverbially odious. But setting the Crown audits

actual representatives aside, and taking account simply of the communion to which M. Mercier belongs, is it wise or generous or just to cast this apjjle of discord among the people of this province? What purpose can it serve save to re-open old sores, to revive old grudges, to reawaken ancient feuds ! Surely to use his position in that way is the policy of neither a statesman nor a patriot.