9 CHAPTER II. A HEROINE OF CHARITY. She felt in her spirit the summons of grace, In the small early hours of a spring morning of the year 1750, a heavy, lumbering carriage rolled over the uneven pavement of the quartier Saint Germain of the French capital, awaking the echoes of the still sleeping city. The beams of the rising sun had not yet struggled over the horizon, to light up the spires and towers and lofty housetops, but the cold, grey dawn was far advanced. The occupants of the carriage were an Irish young lady of two-and-twenty and her chaperon, a French lady, both fatigued and listlessly reclining in their respective corners. They had lately formed part of a gay and glittering crowd in one of the most fashionable Parisian salons. As they moved onward, each communing with her own thoughts, in all probability reverting to the brilliant scene they had just left, and anticipating the recurrence of many more such, the young lady's attention was suddenly attracted by a crowd of poor people standing at the yet unopened door of a parish church. They were workpeople, waiting for admission by the porter, in order to hear mass before they entered on their day's work. The young lady was forcibly struck. She reflected on the hard lot of those children of toil, their meagre fare, their wretched dwellings, their scanty clothing, their constant struggle to preserve themselves and their families, even in 6 this humble position-a struggle in many a case unavailing, for sickness, or interruption of employment, or one of the many other casualties incidental to their state, might any day sink them still deeper in penury. She reflected seriously on all this; and then she dwelt on their simple faith, their humble piety, their thus preventing the day to worship God.' She contrasted their lives with those of the gay votaries of fashion and pleasure, of whom she was one. She felt dissatisfied with herself, and asked her own heart, might she not be more profitably employed. Her thoughts next naturally reverted to her native land, then groaning under the weight of persecution for conscience' sake-its religion proscribed, its altars overturned, its sanctuaries desolate, its children denied, under grievous penalties, the blessings of free education. She felt at once that there was a great mission to be fulfilled, and that, with God's blessing, she might do something towards its fulfilment. a long time she dwelt earnestly on what we may now regard as an inspiration of Heaven. She fervently commended the matter to God, and took the advice of learned and pious ecclesiastics; and the result was that great work which has ever since been, as it is in our day, a source of benediction and happiness to countless thousands of poor families in her native land, and has made the name of Nano Nagle worthy of a high place on the roll of the heroines of charity. For Miss Honora Nagle was born at Ballygriffin, on the banks of the Blackwater, near Mallow, in the year 1728. Her father, Garrett Nagle, Esq., was of the family of Sir Richard Nagle, knight of the shire. for the County of Cork, Attorney-General, and Speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of King James II., which sat in Dublin in 1689. Her mother 1 In Smith's History of the County and City of Cork,' written in 1749, Ballygriffin is described as 'a pretty seat of Mr. Nagle, lying on the Blackwater, below which is the ruined church of Monanimy, with a large chancel, and in it is a modern tomb of the Nagles.' The opposite side of the river, lower down, is bounded by a part of Nagle's mountains. In the same was one of the Mathews of Thomastown, a name since rendered illustrious by the Apostle of Temperance. She was also closely related to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke.' Notwithstanding the pains and penalties attaching to Irish Catholics who attempted to procure for their children in foreign countries the education which was denied them at home, she was sent by her parents to be educated in Paris. Her course being finished, she remained on a visit with some friends there, and, in due time, entered freely into the gaieties of that brilliant capital. The fair young Irish girl, who, in the words of a cotemporary, united with an agreeable person the most engaging manners and the more lasting attractions of a cultivated mind,' was greatly admired, much sought after, and flattered; but, young and lively as she was, her head was not turned. It is recorded of her that, from her earliest years, she evinced such good sense and piety that when occasionally complaints were made of her little faults, such as are incidental to childhood, her father used to remark that his little Nano would yet be a saint.' At the period of which I now write, and, indeed, up to near the close of the last century, the condition of the Irish Catholic was truly deplorable. By the statute law, he was prohibited the possession of landed property, denied all political and municipal privileges, and jealously excluded from every avenue of social advancement. It was only by sufferance he worshipped God, in hidden places, according to the faith of his fathers, and by sufferance he was able stealthily to educate his children in that faith. Not only was his religion banned by law, but, up to the year 1782, he was bound, under pain of fine and imprisonment, to appear before two justices of the peace, and testify on oath 'where and when he heard the Popish mass celebrated, neighbourhood is Carrignaconny, a castle which formerly belonged to Sir Richard Nagle. (Vol. i. pp. 341, 342.) This great statesman, whose mother was Mary, daughter of Patrick Nagle, Esq., of Shanballyduff, was two years the junior of his cousin. and also the names of the persons celebrating and present at it." Up to the same period, Catholics, or, as they were termed in the several statutes, Papists, were forbidden to teach school, either publicly or in private houses, except to the children of the family, under a penalty of 201. fine and three months' imprisonment. They were also prohibited sending their children to foreign countries to be educated, under the penalty of disability to sue in law or equity, or to be guardian, executor, or administrator, or to take a legacy, or deed of gift, or to bear office, and forfeit of goods, and also lands for life.3 It is true that latterly such enactments were but rarely enforced; but the Catholics of Ireland--being close on nine tenths of the population of the country-felt that those enactments were the law of the land in which they lived, and might at any moment be put in motion against them. Therefore, their religious worship, and the education of their children, were conducted in fear and trembling. The state of affairs at the time will be best illustrated by the following fact. On a Sunday morning in the year 1745, while mass was being secretly celebrated in a loft of an old store, in Cook street, in Dublin, the floor gave way, and the officiating priest, Father FitzGerald, and nine of his congregation, were killed, and several others were severely injured. On this, the Viceroy, Lord Chesterfield, declared that, the law to the contrary notwithstanding, the Catholics should be allowed to open their chapels, and, accordingly, some relaxation took place, as far as 18th Anne, c. 3, sec. 21, A.D. 1709.-Irish Statutes,' vol. iv. p. 201. 2 7th William III., c. 4, sec. 9, A.D. 1695.—'Irish Statutes,' vol. iii. p. 259. This law was not repealed until 1782, when the 21st & 22nd of Geoge III. c. 62, was passed, being 'an Act to allow persons professing the Popish religion to teach school in this kingdom, and for regulating the education of Papists, and also to repeal parts of certain laws relative to the guardianship of their children.'- 'Irish Statutes,' vol. xii. p. 388. 3 7th William III. c. 4, sec. 1, A.D. 1695.-'Irish Statutes,' vol. iii. p. 254. ▲ Philip Dormer, the fourth and celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, served as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from August 31, 1745, to September 13, 1747. Divine worship was concerned. The difficulties of education, however, continued as great as ever. The poor naturally suffered most from this ill-judged tyranny. The rich might themselves teach their children, or they might have teachers to attend them in their own homes. But the poor had no such advantages. Teaching school by a papist was a serious offence in law, and, in the few rare cases in which it was attempted, was overlooked only through the kind feeling of the authorities. Hence to realize her idea was a matter of no small difficulty and risk to our Irish young lady. That idea was the gradual opening of schools for poor girls in the south of Ireland, an idea which, in the course of time, was further developed in the daring project of the re-establishment of conventual institutions as the best machinery for the education of the female youth of the country. The difficulties of Miss Nagle's undertaking were very much increased by the necessity of keeping it secret from even the members of her own family. For, although steadfast Catholics, they would naturally be apprehensive of the fatal results likely to accrue to themselves of any relative of theirs so flagrantly violating the law as to open a 'Popish' school and teach therein. How, undeterred by the gravest discouragements and dangers, she ventured stealthily to open her first little school; how she struggled on for a long time almost single-handed in her noble work; how, from early dawn till late at night, she taught, and laboured, and spent herself for those poor neglected girls, whom a sadly mistaken spirit of legislation would keep in darkness and ignorance for ever; how, as if by the design of Divine Providence, her wealthy uncle bequeathed to her his ample fortune, and thus opportunely supplied her with means most wanted for the accomplishment of her plans; how she prevailed on four Irish young ladies of her acquaintance to enter the novitiate of the Ursulines in Paris, and thus qualify themselves for the establishment of a convent for educating poor girls in the city of Cork; how, this machinery proving insufficient, she |