PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

town, and at the same time looked after the welfare of the faithful of West River, Point Prim and Vernon River. This latter mission had a small church in the vicinity of Pow- nall but as it became more settled farther south, a new site was selected for a church, which was built in 1829.

In 1824 was held the first ordination service in Prince Edward Island, when the Rev. William McLeod, a native of Arisaig, Nova Scotia, was raised to the holy priesthood by Bishop MacEachem. Father MacLeod had been educated in the College of Nicolett, and after his ordination he was appointed by Bishop MacEachem to the mis— sion of East Bay in the Island of Cape Bre- ton.

As some of the missions were thus pro- vided with priests, Bishop MacEachem was in some measure enabled to give more of his attention to the matter of educating young men for the priesthood. This was one of the greatest difficulties he had to cope with, but he set about effectually dealing with the matter. He had purchased a por- tion of land at St. Andrew’s and erected thereon a fairly large dwelling, part of which he intended for the nucleus of a diocesan college. Here he gathered together a few young men of promising ability and, with all his other duties pressing upon him, under- took to teach them the branches of a primary and secondary education, preparatory to their entering the seminary. That in such circumstances class work could be of only the most intermittent kind, is very apparent, yet these young men made up their minds for earnest work in their studies, and with such assistance as they could receive from the bishop when he was at home, they made commendable progress. Thus was sown the small and unpretentious seed of Catholic education in Prince Edward Island, which,

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as the years rolled on, developed into its present high state of efficiency. For many years this institution, known as St. Andrew's College, was the center of Catholic educa- tion in the Island. Within its walls were educated most of the Island’s leading Cath- olic men of a generation ago. It was finally closed when about to be replaced by the pres- ent St. Dunstan’s College near Charlotte- town.

Another matter to which Bishop Mac- Eachern gave no small part of his attention during those times was the promotion of a legislative measure granting to the Catholics of the Island the right of citizenship in com- mon with their non-Catholic fellow men. It is difficult to imagine that only three-quar- ters of a century ago, a considerable portion of the residents of the Island should be de- barred from exercising the franchise on ac- count of their religious convictions. In this, however, Prince Edward Island was no worse than the parent country, where the same conditions prevailed. Though this measure was destined to meet with a good deal of opposition in the Legislative Assem- bly, by which its accomplishment was de- layed for some time, still it must be said that in a general way the justice of the Cath- olic claims were fully admitted by all parties. The principal objections were directed against the advisability of enacting such leg- islation before any similar measure had been undertaken by the British Parliament. The measure was several times discussed in open assembly, and on each occasion was defeated, and it was not until five years after its first introduction that it passed both houses, and became law, having received the assent of His Excellency, the Governor, on April 28, 1830.

In the meantime the work of looking after the spiritual welfare of the several mis-