scenes, political and polemical, had so thoroughly retained the confidence of his Bishop, that on the death of his uncle, in the memorable year of Emancipation, he was appointed to succeed him in the united parishes of Fahan and Deysertegny.

СНАРТER II.

THE MISSION OF THE NEW PARISH PRIEST-STATE OF THE CHURCH IN GENERAL-LOCAL EXERTIONS OF DR. MAGINN-HE SUPPRESSES SECRET SOCIETIES-FOUNDS SEVEN NATIONAL SCHOOLS-HIS CONTROVERSY WITH THE NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION-HIS INCREASING INFLUENCE-HIS PREACHING AS DESCRIBED BY A COTEMPORARY.

Ar the comparatively early age of twenty-seven Mr. Maginn was thus placed as Pastor over a community of ten thousand souls. He took up his residence at Buncrana, a little watering-place of about a thousand inhabitants. His mission extended over a country which as early as the seventh century had been covered with cells and schools. In the annals of Ulster, mention is frequently made of Fahan-Mura and the miracles of its patron. The noble house of O'Neil invoked him as their special intercessor; on his Gospel some of the most solemn treaties of the northern tribes were ratified, and his crozier (for he was a Bishop or Abbot) was preserved with awe and veneration down to the destructive era of "the Reformation." From that dismal date no diocese suffered more severely than Derry. Successive Bishops and Abbots were put to death as fast as discovered; others fled into exile and there died; the Prior of Cole

raine, in Cromwell's time, was flung into the Bann and stoned to death by the Puritan soldiery; a Bishop who returned, at the peril of his life in the reign of Queen Anne, hired as a common shepherd on the uplands of Magilligan, renewing in his own person the experience of Saint Patrick, who, from having been an enslaved shepherd of sheep, became a spiritual shepherd of souls.

The year in which Mr. Maginn became a Parish Priest of his diocese, was, as we said, the same in which "the Emancipation Act" became the law of the land. A new policy towards Catholics was thus initiated by the State; and new relations must needs be established between the Church and State. With Catholic peers and commoners in Parliament, Catholic judges on circuit, and Catholic magistrates in every neighborhood, the necessity for a a wider range of observation, a higher tone, and an enlarged legislation, naturally devolved upon the Hierarchy.

The Irish Church did not want for learned and prudent prelates in that emergency. Dr. Doyle, Dr. Murray, and Dr. McHale, were by acquirements and position the most influential of their order. Each had borne a patriotic part in the contest just closed, each sincerely desired the good of the church and the country, but each differed widely from the other, as to the best means of promoting their common objects. It would seem that Dr. Doyle placed his chief hope in the education of the people, Dr. Murray in conciliating the government, and

Dr. McHale in prolonged agitation. In a very few years the gifted "J. K. L." was removed from the scene; while many new measures were proposed, and many new dangers began to menace the lately emancipated Church. Between 1830 and '40 the Tithe question was compromised; the corporations were thrown open to Catholics; the national school system was introduced; the new Poor law went into operation; official intercourse with Rome, and a state provision for the clergy, were discussed and dropped, resumed and postponed. The Hierarchy though not recognized by their titles were treated very ceremoniously; the least advance on the part of any of them, was graciously received; drafts of " government measures" were more than once submitted to their judg ment; and a constant anxiety was shown to attach them to the interest of Imperial parties. Three or four of the Bishops were supposed to be so propitiated by these attentions, as to overlook the continued disregard of popular demands by successive ministries and Parliaments. The National School system was found on trial to be very defective, and by some, absolutely mischievous; the Poor law had many cruel drawbacks in the eyes of a proverbially charitable people; the Irish representation was shamefully disproportionate to that of the Empire at large; and the power of the landlord class remained as absolute over the tenantry, as before. The great body of the Bishops continued on these grounds to mingle in

public affairs, following with unabated zeal the lead of Mr. O'Connell, who in turn, was equally willing to be advised and led by them. The second order of the clergy were almost to a man of the same party; and none of their body more entirely so, than the new Parish Priest of Fahan and Desertegney.

The peculiarities of his position, not less than his ardent temperament, brought the Rev. Mr. Maginn frequently before the public. The Catholics of the peninsula were "twelve to one" against all other denominations. They were still distinguishable into clans, and still spoke Gaelic. Their market and court-town was Derry, the Urbs Intacta of a hostile race and creed. The proscriptive Protestantism of the maiden city had withstood the gentle influence of Dean Berkley, the zealous liberalism of its famous Bishop-Earl, and the fraternal spirit of the volunteers and United Irishmen. Proud of its notoriety as the city which repulsed King James, it looked down with scorn not unmingled with apprehension on the gigantic Innishowen men who came to mingle in its markets, and sometimes to settle within its walls. On the northern bank of the Foyle, an Irish town had arisen, such as grew up without the walled Norman boroughs of the Leinster pale; in its midst the hated cross was lifted on high, Catholic rites were constantly celebrated, the Bishop took up his permanent residence, and thus the citadel of religion, like another Santa Fé, con