can liberty and tolerance, so highly boasted, exist less in this Great Republic than in the most oppressed country of Europe. Catholic churches are burned and those who try to prevent it are assassinated. In the city of Ellsworth they snatched one of our Fathers from his abode; despoiled him of all his coats; tarred and feathered him and afterward rode him upon a rail. He was borne up the principal streets of the place, with the most outrageous and indecent insults. All the city applauded it - this horrible scene. They made it a crime to this priest to come and preach and say mass to the Catholics !
St. Joseph's College, April Iq, 1855.
Dear CHARLES and MIMI ?
It is really a long time since I have received a letter from you. I have written you often, too, and to Sylvie, Elmire and Rosalie, and I am waiting impatiently for some news from the family. I fear that your thoughts and those of my nearest and dearest nieces turn but seldom toward America, where you have a brother who thinks of you constantly and never ceases to form vows for your happiness and theirs. An expedient has occurred to me, which I hope may prove successful. In January I wrote to our correspondent in New York to send you by the first boat for Antwerp, in Mr. Key's care, the latest and handsomest map of the United States. It has been on the way since February, and Gustave Van Kerkhove has been charged with looking after it when it arrives.
Well, then, you are to hang this map somewhere in your house where it will be in plain sight, and I am sure you will think oftener of me, who have lived for so many years in this country, and have ranged over this vast region from New York to the mouth of the Columbia, and from New Orleans to Halifax in Nova Scotia and as far as the glaciers
2 From the French.