Page:Irish In America.djvu/191

perty, including churches, parochial residences, convents, &c., is little short of 200,000l. In St. John's alone the value of their property is estimated at over 150,000l. In this is included the cost of the cathedral, one of the noblest structures to be found at the other side of the Atlantic. To raise this magnificent temple, the generous colonists subscribed the enormous sum of 120,000l. Were Governor Milbank now in the flesh, and were he to stand on the floor of that great cathedral, glance up to its lofty roof, cast his eyes round at the beautiful works of art brought from the most famous studios of Home, and then remember his famous letter to Dr. O'Donnell—so coolly insolent and so haughtily contemptuous—he might well feel ashamed of himself, and the Government whose miserable policy he represented; and also learn how impossible it is to destroy a living faith, or crush a genuine race. It was only fifty years after that letter was written that the idea of erecting this stupendous cathedral was conceived by the Bishop of that day, the Right Rev. Dr. Flemming. Few save the Bishop himself dared to hope that any one then living would ever worship within its walls; but, strange to say, from the commencement of the work its progress was never interrupted from want of funds, and in the comparatively short space of ten years it was so far advanced as to admit of the Holy Sacrifice being offered up under its roof. Dr. Flemming lived long enough to see all doubts removed—not from his mind, for he never entertained one on the subject—as to the ultimate accomplishment of his object; and in leaving the completion of the great work to his successor, he knew that in the piety and indomitable zeal of Dr. Mullock there was the best guarantee for its speedy and splendid completion. Dr Mullock received it a mere shell—a magnificent exterior is true, but nothing more; everything within remained to be done. Taking hold of the work, as it were, with a strong hand and a determined will, Bishop Mullock went