PORTUGUESE STUDENTS—BISHOP HAY AND SCALAN—GLASGOW--VALLADOLID—COUNTRY SCHOOLS—SCOTCH COLLEGES IN FRANCE—THE STEWART PAPERS—THE BISHOP OF RHODEZ THANKED—FAVOUR OF THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY TO THE SCOTCH COLLEGES—RE-PUBLICATION OF BISHOP HAY’S WORKS—BISHOP GEDDES’ EXCESS OF DUTY—CONSECRATION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN BISHOP AT LULWORTH CASTLE—MR. BURKE’S “REFLEC­TIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION”—BISHOP HAY CONCERNED ABOUT THE SCOTCH COLLEGE AT PARIS—THE “SINCERE CHRISTIAN” MUCH DESIRED IN SCOTLAND—BISHOP GEDDES AND GLASGOW—DECREASE OF PREJUDICE— TENNIS COURT AS A CHAPEL—DIFFICULTY OF FINDING PRIESTS—BISHOP HAY STILL AT SCALAN—WHAT WAS TAUGHT IN CHARITY SCHOOLS—DREAD OF REVOLUTIONARY CONTAGION SPREADING TO GREAT BRITAIN—BISHOP HAY AND DR. REID’S PHILOSOPHY—SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE’S HISTORICAL WORK— BISHOP HAY AND MR. BAGNALL—COMPETENT TEACHERS FOUND FOR CATH­OLIC SCHOOLS.

Something truly new in the history of the mission comes now to be recorded. Five young students arrived from Portugal in order to prosecute their medical studies at Edinburgh! They were shortly afterwards followed by two more who had previously been to Denmark for a similar purpose. The Intendant General of Police at Lisbon had availed himself of the mediation of Mr. William Fryer, Superior of the English College there, for securing Bishop Geddes’ co-operation in the arrangements intended to be made for the accommodation of the students. Mr. Fryer, accordingly corresponded with Bishop Geddes on the subject. The young men were to be sent at the expense of a charitable institution in which the Queen of Portugal took a deep interest. A house was to be taken for them, servants engaged and Bishop Geddes appointed Superior of their establishment. Board and lodgings were to be provided for him and a pension of 1,000 crowns a year, on his undertaking to superintend the temporal and spiritual affairs of the young men. Decency, rather than elegance, was to be studied in their table and their dress; and they were to be kept close to their work. Any idle or refractory members of the party were to be sent home at once. Notwithstanding the unexpected increase of his cares and responsibil­ities, the Bishop felt that he could not wholly decline the proposal, although it was impossible that he should reside in the same house with the young men. It was, therefore, arranged that he should render whatever service was in his power in forwarding the scheme. His reputation had long ago extended from Madrid to Lisbon, so that her Portuguese Majesty, on hearing that he had consented to undertake a general superintendence of the plan, expressed the highest satis­faction, and it was settled that the Bishop’s allowance should be equivalent to £110 a year in English money. He took a house for the young men in Chessel’s court, Canongate, and early in October they began to reside there. In communicating the details of the affair to his friend at Scalan, he was not without fear that this new addition to his anxieties would not be approved. It was inevitable, however; and hoping that Providence would so direct it as to be serviceable to the common good, he commended it and himself to his friend’s good prayers.

The Bishop, in his reply on the subject of the Portuguese colony, expressed his sense of the honour done to Scotland, and of the probable advantage to the mission; but regretted that his friend should be burdened with a charge so foreign to his principal duties. “It will require a great deal of time,” he said, “and attention to keep these young students in proper order and preserve their morals in that corrupted place and dangerous study. May God Almighty assist. The Queen, indeed, has been very generous to you. I pray God to enable you to employ it properly. I make no doubt but the design of Heaven in sending you that supply is to enable you to co-operate with me in placing the missions on an independent footing, and providing for all its difficulties; and I hope you will always have that end in view.” The Bishop further advised that the increase of income should remain a profound secret; for if friends came to know of it, he would be pestered without mercy, experto crede.”

Bishop Hay now entertained the hope that he would be able to render Scalan available not only for the supply of foreign colleges, but also as a seminary for training even to the highest step; and he made arrangements for securing the maintenance of twelve students permanently. He requested that Mr. Thomson would contribute towards this purpose. He asked him in the mean­time only to send to him a supply of school books. Such of the classics as required purgation were not to be had in Scotland in a purified form. Could Mr. Thomson, therefore, find some copies of Terence and Ovid’s Metamorphoses expurgated. Such would be most acceptable. Rollin had praised a work entitled Terentius Christianus. If Mr. Thomson could find a copy, he might be good enough to send it, together with any of Cicero’s Philosophical Works with good notes. For the Bishop’s own use he would be glad to have Boservich’s Conic sections.

Bishop Geddes, on visiting Glasgow, found that everything there was proceeding to his satis­faction. The house in which the Catholics met had been leased for another year; and Mr. Wilson, the landlord, had permitted the partitions to be removed. It was gratifying also to Bishop Hay to learn from his friend that Mr. Menzies had returned from the excursion for the benefit of his health, tolerably restored, and that the seven Portuguese students had arrived on 21st October. He, at the same time, assured the Bishop that whatever money he could command, should, with very few necessary expenses, be applied to the great end which both of them had chiefly at heart. He recommended that Bishop Hay should treat in a friendly manner with Mr. Cameron at Valladolid about taking boys the following year. The new bishops for England, he added, were Mr. Douglas, caesareae in partibus for London, and Mr. Wm. Gibson, accaviten for the North. Again November 11th, Bishop Geddes wrote to his friend. Referring to the state of the country schools, he said that he had lately the satisfaction of setting matters to rights. One evening at supper, meeting a Mr. Kemp, a clerical gentleman officially connected with the management of schools, he proposed to him that the Catholic children should not be required to learn the assembly catechism in the charity schools. The company at once joined the Bishop in saying that it was a hardship. Mr. Kemp evaded this direct appeal, humorously remarking that he was not endowed with dispensing power. Two other ministers and a lady supported the Bishop’s plea. At parting Mr. Kemp took him by the hand and said that in company he felt under some restraint, but that he wished to have some private conversation with the Bishop, and to settle the matter in an amicable manner. It was understood that Mr. Fleming would be removed to some distance from the braes of Glenlivat.

It was not long till Bishop Geddes had more news to communicate (Nov. 15 th). A decree of the French Assembly, dated 28th October, was in favour of the Scotch Colleges in France. Mr. Andrew Stewart had mentioned the Scotch College in Paris to Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Leeds, and had prevailed on them to send a despatch to the British Minister at Paris on the subject. The National Assembly of France founded their decree for leaving the Scotch colleges there as they were, on the ground that they did not belong to the French nation. It was news to Bishop Hay that a project was on foot for the purchase of the papers belonging to the Paris College by the British nation; and Mr. Pitt, it was said, was inclined to treat generously. Bishop Hay, writing to Bishop Geddes, suggested that he should let Mr. Andrew Stewart know that the Stewart papers at Grisi (the Scotch College) were not the property of that college, but only a deposit, and that their owners were the Scotch Catholics as a body. The Bishop had heard that the papers left by the Archbishop of Glasgow were to be returned to Glasgow if religion should ever be restored in Scotland. Part of the price to be paid for those papers might perhaps be allotted to the mission. But the Bishop was quite aware of the extreme delicacy of the negotiation; and he only suggested it as deserving his friend’s consideration.

The Bishops of Scotland offered to the Bishop of Rhodez, their common thanks for the active interest which he had taken in the national colleges. The reply of that Prelate was forwarded from Douai by Mr. Farquarson. It expressed his friendly feelings, and held out good hopes of success.
The memorial regarding the national colleges in France, to which Bishop Geddes obtained signatures among the Catholic gentry, prevailed with the French Assembly; and the provision to Douai was voted permanent. Archbishop Troy of Dublin, writing to Bishop Geddes, begged of him to present his respects to Bishop Hay, and to assure him of his “unutterable esteem;” adding “I have encouraged the re-publication of his Polemical Tracts here. They have rendered signal service to the cause of religion. The second Dublin edition of the Sincere, Devout, and Pious Christian is now in my printer’s press, and will be speedily published. The Scripture Doctrine on Miracles was published last year.”

The rapid failure of Rev. Mr. Menzies’ health, together with Rev. Mr. Robertson’s illness of several weeks’ duration, laid on Bishop Geddes an excess of parochial duty; and to this was added his care of the Portuguese students. He found time, notwithstanding, for correspondence with his friends. Writing to Mr. Thomson, Dec. 18th, he informed him of the consecration of Bishop Caryl (Carroll), for America, at Lulworth Castle, on the Feast of the Assumption;. and also, that Mr. Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution had been well received, 15,000 copies having been sold in a few weeks. Bishop Geddes considered that, notwithstanding the opposition which it met with; this able work was likely to do much good in view of the state of matters which then prevailed.

In the event of the Scotch College at Paris being preserved, a new constitution would be neces­sary. This was decidedly the opinion of Bishop Hay; and it caused him no slight anxiety. The Prior of the Carthusians was deprived of his office, and were the masters who had been under his authority, to be subject to no control? The Bishop maintained that unless the College were placed under the authority of the Scotch Bishops it would never be of much service to the mission.

Writing to Bishop Geddes, he requested him on the first opportunity to return his most respectful compliments to the Archbishop of Dublin, adding “It is a comfort to think that my small endeavours are doing good anywhere.” Copies of the Sincere Christian were much wanted in Scotland, and the Bishop thought that 200 might be procured from Dublin at a cheaper rate than they could be printed at in Scotland.

The important mission of Glasgow will now for a few moments engage our attention. The second and third Sundays after Epiphany, Bishop Geddes was there on a pastoral visit. There were twenty-nine communicants. Among the small congregation were observed, with pleasure, five or six soldiers in uniform. Some Protestants of note, and, among others, the Procurator fiscal, wished to be present at Mass. But Bishop Geddes thought it more prudent to ask them not to come, as their presence might excite too much attention. It appeared to him, besides, that they were moved with curiosity. It is more remarkable that some of the wealthier merchants declared in private company their willingness to contribute towards the maintenance of a Cath­olic priest in the town. This they proposed in order to show the world that they were not so bigoted in Glasgow as was generally supposed. Mr.Wilson, town clerk and proprietor of the house in which the Catholics assembled, assured the Bishop, one night, in the course of a long conversation, that prejudices against Catholics had subsided within the previous three or four years, more, completely than he could have thought, at one time, possible. As regarded the mercantile and manufacturing classes, this was so far a mistake, as their decrease of bigotry must in great measure be ascribed to a cause very different from any advance which they had made in true liberality. Motives of self-interest were at work. The late Dr. Cleland, who was by no means Catholic although he lived on terms of friendship with his kinsman, Bishop Hay, formally testifies that, when in 1791, the great tide of emigration from the North Highlands threatened to drain the country of its hardy mountaineers, Messrs. Geo. McIntosh, David Dale, Robert Dalgleish and some others of the capitalist manufacturers, invited the Highlanders to Glasgow; and, as an inducement to the Catholics amongst them, promised security in the prac­tice of their religious worship. This they could not have done at a very much earlier period; and when they did so encourage the Catholic Highlanders, the tide of bigotry among the citizens, generally, must have ceased to flow with its ancient vigour. On occasion of the pastoral visit just referred to, the Tennis Court of Mitchell Street, was first taken on lease, as a temporary chapel. Bishop Hay received with the greatest pleasure, these accounts from Glasgow; and they gave him cause to hope that God in His mercy would give religion a footing in that city. But he found it very difficult to supply spiritual aid there and in other places.

Bishop Geddes had some difficulty in providing funds for the travelling expenses of students on their way to the foreign colleges. Bishop Hay made him welcome to any money of his, that happened to be available, until a supply should come. He hoped, at the same time, that the divi­dend of the Bank of Scotland would be considerable. The difficulty of supplying priests for vacant missions gave the Bishop much concern. Bishop Hay was now himself unable to under­take the laborious duties of a mission; and he thought it best to remain at Scalan which, other­wise, would require the services of an able priest in the vigour of his years. Besides, none could carry out so well as himself the reforms which he had inaugurated at the Seminary; and he hoped to render it a lasting benefit to the mission.

Bishop Geddes had lately had some friendly conversations with Mr. Kemp, who had promised to exempt Catholic children from learning the catechism of the Presbyterian Assembly, acknowledging that it was not suited for the instruction of young or ignorant persons. Catholic children in the charity schools should be taught only reading, writing and arithmetic, whilst, with regard to religion, it was sufficient that they should be made acquainted with the morality and history of the Scriptures, especially of the Gospels. Mr. Kemp had a plan in view for this purpose, which the Bishop thought not a bad one. It was to draw up a set of proper questions without subjoining the answers, but only indicating the chapters where they could be found, so that the children might look for themselves. In order the better to enable him to carry out his plan, the Bishop gave him Challoner’s History of the Old and New Testaments, and Fleury’s Catechism. Mr. Kemp promised to avoid everything that was in controversy between Catholics and Protestants. On these conditions being agreed to, the Bishop engaged to do all in his power to cause the charity schools to be frequented by Catholic children. He was confident that Bishop Hay would approve of all that he had done.

Bishop Hay’s perusal of Mr. Burke’s work on the French Revolution filled his mind with too well-founded alarm. The statesman’s dread of the revolutionary contagion spreading to Great Britain caused him to push his conclusions to their utmost limits. It so appeared to the Bishop, to whom many of the facts alleged were altogether new. But, assuming their truth, which it was impossible to doubt, attested as it was by so great an authority as Mr. Burke, the Bishop acknowledged that he was deeply affected by the state of the French nation, and considered its misery as one of the heaviest judgments that, to his knowledge, had ever been inflicted on a people. The condition of France, in general, naturally excited in his mind the keenest anxiety for the safety of the Scotch Colleges there. He dreaded, especially, the kind of instruction which would probably be provided to the universities; and if the civic oath should be imposed on the superiors of colleges, what might not be feared? Might not their refusal to take it be made a pretext for annulling the seminaries and seizing their properties? He communicated to his coad­jutor the vain wish that the Scotch property in France were withdrawn from that doomed country.

The study of Dr. Reid’s philosophy was more pleasing. The Bishop was attracted to a second perusal of this author’s work on the intellectual powers. He regretted, however, that there should be anything in a work of such distinguished merit that was calculated to lessen the author’s claim on the esteem of every intelligent reader. He could wish, therefore, that in a future edition, Dr. Reid would correct the assertion that Malebranche was a Jesuit, which he puts forward with a view to account for Arnauld’s opposition to the French philosophers. Malebranche was an Oratorian, and his associates, were, in general, united in sentiments with Arnauld’s party in their controversy with the Jesuits. A passage on Transubstantiation, in Dr. Reid’s work, was another source of vexation to the Bishop. Every well-informed Catholic could not but perceive that the professor wrote without knowledge of the subject. It would not be difficult to show, according to his own principles, that nothing is more consistent with his theory of philosophy than the Catholic doctrine regarding the great mystery. The Bishop desired, also, to have sent to him Dr. Reid’s Treatise on the Active Powers. He greatly valued Sir John Dalrymple’s historical work, which the author had lately presented to him; and charged the coadjutor to express his warmest thanks for the valuable gift, not failing to say that it gave him real pleasure to find that he still had a place in Sir John’s remembrance. The friendly consideration and sound judgment of Bishop Hay were well shown by an arrangement which he made with Mr. Bagnal, a manufac­turer at Glasgow, of Staffordshire pottery. The Bishop held bonds of this manufacturer on account of several sums of money which he had advanced to him. It was agreed that Mr. Bagnal should provide a complete assortment of stone ware for the seminary, and a double set of such things as were most in use; and that on this being done all his bonds should be returned to him discharged. This was the most easy way in which the bonds could be cancelled; and the Bishop was anxious to have the matter settled in case of difficulty arising after his death.

It was not sufficient to take measures for preventing Catholic children from being imbued with Presbyterian ideas at schools that were held under the auspices of the Kirk. The time was now come when there could be schools exclusively devoted to the education of Catholic children. The chief difficulty appeared to be that of finding properly qualified masters. The teacher whom Bishop Hay had appointed at Glenlivat failed. An Irish scholar whom Bishop Geddes employed at Edinburgh was alike unfortunate. Both Bishops at last succeeded in finding competent teachers for Edinburgh, Glenlivat and Aberdeen.