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The death of Father James
was a sad loss to the immigrants. It ushered in the very state of affairs,
which they dreaded so much when they had first made up their minds to
emigrate, and which kept the project in abeyance for so long a time. Now
they have no Priest to minister to their Spiritual wants. They have been
deprived of the Saintly Pastor, who was their consolation and their joy
throughout the darkest days of their exile, and whose presence and
fatherly counsel bore them bravely over the most trying experiences of
their isolation. He had lived with them and labored with them when
conditions were at the worst, he had shared in their wants and privations,
and now that a brighter era was dawning for them, and his life growing
more comfortable, he is called away as his feet were about to press the
threshold of comparative ease and comfort. Indeed a great change had taken
place in the condition of the people during the thirteen years of his stay
amongst them. The small thatched log house was giving place to more
commodious dwellings, roads were being opened up from place to place, the
poverty of the earlier years was now a thing of the past, and in its stead
the people enjoyed a competence and in some instances even plenty. God in
His Goodness had wonderfully blessed the immigrants in the new country,
and encouraged by the experiences of the past they faced the future with a
firmer hope and a more settled assurance of happiness to come.
But now the greatest loss
of all has come upon them, and they feel it the more, that look upon it as
they may, they find it in every sense irreparable. For a number of years
they had been in correspondence with their friends in Scotland, and had
held out to them many inducements to come to Prince Edward Island. They
told them of the success they had been able to achieve in the new Colony,
and contrasted the same with the untoward conditions in the Motherland,
which had forced them to emigrate. Their friends in Scotland too, were
talking of emigration. They had taken up the idea as the only solution for
the problems that faced them at home under the Penal Laws.
As a matter of fact, the
state of the Catholics in Scotland, though somewhat improved, was still
far from satisfactory, and there were many who were longing for the day
when they would be able to emigrate and join their kindred beyond the
seas. But now that Father James was dead Prince Edward Island held out no
inducement to would be Catholic emigrants. In Scotland, their
circumstances might indeed be precarious ; but they could at least see a
Priest from time to time, whereas in Prince Edward Island this great
privilege would necessarily be denied them. Hence in such circumstances,
emigration was out of the question, and the poor people were forced to
nurse their discontent as best they could until more favorable conditions
would prevail. For five years things went on in this way, when God in His
Providence, raised up another Apostle to minister to His needy flock in
Prince Edward Island. |
