REV. F. FARMER.

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"On this solemn occasion, we might renew our thanks to the God of battles, for the success he has granted to the arms of your allies and your friends by land and by sea, through the other parts of the globe. But let us not recal those events which too clearly prove how much the hearts of our enemies have been obdurated. Let us prostrate ourselves at the altar, and implore the God of mercy to suspend his vengeance, to spare them in his wrath, to inspire them with sentiments of justice and moderation, to terminate their obstinacy and error, and to ordain that your victories be followed by peace and tranquility. Let us beseech him to continue to shed on the counsels of the king your ally, that spirit of wisdom, of justice, and of courage, which has rendered his reign so glorious. Let us entreat him to maintain in each of the states that intelligence by which the united states are inspired. Let us return him thanks that a faction, whose rebellion he has corrected, now deprived of support, is annihilated. Let us offer him pure hearts, unsoiled by private hatred or public dissention, and let us, with one will and one voice, pour forth to the Lord that hymn of praise by which christians celebrate their gratitude and his glory."

1

In 1781 Father Farmer again visited his scattered flock in New Jersey. Starting in Burlington County in February, this indefatigable missionary, still active for his advanced years, visited Salem and Gloucester Counties in April, and then in May was in the northern part of the State, in the iron district around the beautiful sheet now known as Greenwood Lake, but then called by the more prosaic title of Long

"Pa. Packet or the General Advertiser," November 27, 1781, No. 812. The Abbé Bandol remained some years after the war, attached to the French embassy, and returned to France in the spring of 1788. He had been 10 years here. (Letter of Very Rev. Dr. Carroll to the Nuncio at Paris, March 5, 1788.)

Pond, and down to Pompton Plains. In June and July he was again at Philadelphia and in Lower Jersey; then in September, crossing to Greenwich, N. J., he made his way to Mount Hope, Greenwood Lake, Ringwood, and hearing of Canadian and Acadian Catholics at Fishkill, passed through the valley by a well-known route. We can conceive the joy of these forlorn Catholics at the sudden appearance of a priest. He records the baptism of fourteen near Fishkill, in New York, with names like Monly, Merlet, Porteau, Ferriole, Bouvet, Lafleur, Pollin, Constantin, Feniole, Varly, Guilmet. Carrying his chapel service as he did, we may infer that he said mass, at this time, October, 1781, in the Canadian camp near Fishkill.

He returned by way of Ringwood and Pompton, but before the end of the month was at Cohanzy, in Salem County. The baptisms of the year performed by this wonderful missionary numbered 170. The next year he twice traversed New Jersey from Cohanzy to Greenwood, baptizing 129. In 1783 we trace him again as he plods through the State, till the close of June, on his mission to keep alive the faith among the Catholics. In the autumn he made his way again to Fishkill, where he remained from the last day of October to the fourth of November. He probably entered New York

Rauffman Cath. & Anna

Guhringer & Catharina senglein Cather

FAC-SIMILE OF REGISTER OF FATHER FARMER.

City at once after its evacuation by the British troops on the

25th of that month.'

1 Register of Rev. Ferdinand Farmer.

According to some French works a Cistercian Father, Dom Gauthey, published in Philadelphia in 1783 a prospectus inviting subscriptions for a system of conveying messages by means of tubes, but investigation has not obtained any proof of the presence in this country of the scientific priest, thus recognized as the inventor of the speaking tube.'

1 The Records of the American Philosophical Society contain no allusion to such a proposal, and no copy of the Prospectus has yet been found.

CHAPTER V.

THE CLERGY IN THE UNITED STATES SOLICIT A SUPERIOR FROM THE POPE THE FRENCH INTRIGUE-DR. CARROLL'S CONTROVERSY WITH WHARTON-HE IS APPOINTED PREFECTAPOSTOLIC.

DURING the continuance of the conflict between Great Britain and the United States, direct intercourse between the two countries was, of course, suspended, and from an early period of the Revolutionary war, correspondence, even by way of France or Belgium, became almost impossible.

Before the close of the war the venerable Bishop Challoner died on the 10th of January, 1781, and the Rt. Rev. James Talbot, who had been consecrated Bishop of Birtha, on the 24th of August, 1759, and had from that time acted as coadjutor, became Vicar-Apostolic of the London District, with jurisdiction over the faithful in the United States. "But," as Dr. Carroll subsequently wrote, "whether he would hold no correspondence with a country which he perhaps considered as in a state of rebellion, or whether a natural indolence and irresolution restrained him, the fact is, that he held no kind of intercourse with priest or layman in this part of his charge. Before the breaking out of the war, his predecessor had appointed a Vicar, the Rev. Mr. Lewis, and he governed the mission of America during the Bishop's silence."

1

Bishop Talbot went further; when in 1783 the Revs. John Boone and Henry Pile, two Maryland priests belonging to the suppressed Society, who had been unable to return to their native land during the war, applied to the Bishop

1 Carroll, "Sketch of Catholicity in the U. S.”

ACTION OF THE CLERGY.

205

for faculties, he refused to give them, and declared that he would exercise no jurisdiction in the United States. These two priests apparently then wrote to the Propaganda for faculties, and thus brought the condition of affairs in the United States before the Head of the Church.'

The Maryland clergy, fearful of exciting prejudice against themselves, made no attempt to restore the dependence on England; all their writings show that they desired only to have a local Superior chosen from their own body, and subject directly to the Pope.

Yet for a few priests, all members of an order so recently suppressed by one of the Sovereign Pontiffs, to obtain a hearing or favor at Rome, seemed almost impossible, the more especially as the country had no ambassador at Rome to lay the matter before the Holy See. But this consideration did not prevent their taking action.

Left to themselves, the clergy in Maryland and Pennsylvania, after the suppression of the Society of Jesus was formally notified to them, lived under provisional and informal regulations. The regulations or statutes of the VicariateApostolic of London were not apparently communicated to them or enforced.

After Rev. John Carroll arrived in 1774, no other priest came over from Europe, the war which followed preventing further intercourse with England. Rev. Anthony Carroll, who accompanied him, returned to Europe the next year; Rev. Matthias Manners died at Bohemia, June 15, 1775; Rev. Arnold Livers at St. Inigoes, August 16, 1777; Rev. George Hunter at St. Thomas', August 1, 1779; Rev. Peter Morris at Newtown, November 19, 1782. Thus had their little band been fearfully thinned in less than ten years.

1 Roman memorandum on a letter from Maryland to the Propaganda, November 10, 1783. The two priests came over in 1784 (Foley, Treacy).