ready weapon to the caprice or hostility of the bigot. Having been informed of the intention of Dr. Burke to establish a school, and thus, through the most effective means, elevate the condition of his co-religionists, the then Governor of the province threatened to put the law in force against the priest if he persevered in his attempt. In this conjuncture aid came from an unexpected quarter. The leading Protestants of the town exhibited their opposition to the illiberal policy of the Governor in the most effective manner, by sending their own children to a school which they had the wisdom to appreciate and the moral courage to support. The Governor, whatever the perversity of his bigotry, dared not enter into conflict with the influential allies of the Catholic priest; and so Dr. Burke and the cause of education triumphed. Young officers frequented the academy, to learn mathematics and the science of fortification from its accomplished principal. Strangely enough, the Government, whose representatives sought to crush the school and the teacher, afterwards marked its appreciation of the services of Dr. Burke—who, owing to his influence with the Indians, prevented them from joining the French in the war then raging—by conferring on him a pension of 300l. a year. It need scarcely be added, that this money was applied to the advancement of religion and enlightenment in a young and struggling mission.
The progress of the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia was slow, and not over hopeful, for the first quarter of the present century. In the year 1816 there were about 1,500 Catholics in Halifax, and save in a few towns, where small congregations existed, the faithful were scattered over the province, the greater number hidden in the wilds and fastnesses of an almost unexplored country, and far away from the ministrations or influence of a priest. The Irish carried their faith with them into the forest; and though many of them for years never heard the once
