He got on very well in the missions: he took all the different parts as they were assigned him; but he was more successful in the lectures than in the great sermons of the evening. His confessional was always besieged with penitents, and he never spared himself.
The late Cardinal, who was the chief mover in bringing the Passionists to England, wished to have a house of the order in the diocese of Westminster (then the London District), to which he had been recently translated. Father Dominic entered heartily into the project, and Father Ignatius with him. After a few weeks' negotiation, they took possession of Poplar House, in the west end of Hampstead, towards the end of June, 1848. A new foundation was, in those days, as it is still, a formidable undertaking. The ground has generally to be bought; a church and house built upon it; the necessary machinery to set it going to be provided, and all this from nothing but the Providence of God, and the charity of benefactors. Under a more than ordinary pressure of their difficulties, the house was opened, and after many changes and removals, it has finally fixed itself on the brow of Highgate Hill, under the name of St. Joseph's Retreat.
He notes in his Journal that the place in Hampstead brought some sad thoughts into his mind, as it was within sight of where his sister, Lady Georgiana Quin, died in 1823. He tells us also that he was benighted somewhere in London, and had to beg for a bed for the first time in his life. On a fine summer's day he sauntered leisurely through the grounds of Eton, ruminating over the scenes of forty years before, when he first became a child of what proved to him a novercal institution.
He was not destined to labour much, this time, for the London house. Father Dominic took the charge of it, and appointed Father Ignatius Rector of St. Michael's, Aston Hall, a post that became vacant by the death of Father Constantine. Father Ignatius thus mentions the matter in one of his letters:—
"It was just such a death as one might expect of him (Father Constantine). I was thinking and saying to some one before, he would be attending to his duties and giving directions in the house to the last. In his agony, he heard the clock strike, and, mistaking the hour for another when some bell has to ring, he asked why the bell did not ring for such a duty. It is recorded that what was most remarkable in him was his gentleness and patience; and that indeed was very striking. He must have suffered heavily to die in a lingering way by a cancer, but he never was disturbed, and went on saying mass, and doing all that was to be done, as long as he could stand to it. His loss makes, as you have heard, a great change in my position. I never dreamt of being a Superior for years to come, and thought I had come to an end, almost for life, of keeping accounts and ruling household affairs. But God's will be done. It is a great comfort, as I find, to be in the rule of good religious, to what it would be to have people under one who seek their own gain and pleasure."
Ruling, even thus, did not turn out so easy a matter; for it is recorded in the Journal, that Father Dominic gave him "a long lecture about the proper way of ruling," which he seems to have drawn down upon himself by some mistakes.
In the beginning of September, this year, he gave his first retreat. It was to the students of Carlow College. This event gave him a fresh start in his great work. Since 1844, when he made the tour on the Continent, procuring prayers for England, his zeal in the cause seems to have slumbered somewhat. Not that he was the less anxious for the return of his countrymen to the faith of their fathers, but he did not, perhaps, see any opportunity open for moving others in a general way to help the work by their prayers. It is rather a wonderful disposition of Providence that his energies should be renewed in Ireland, and that, too, in '48. Extracts from a few letters will show how it happened. In a letter to Mrs. Canning, he says:—
"My last journey to Ireland was, in the first place, to preach a retreat in Carlow College, which was the first and only retreat I have been on alone; secondly, to beg in Dublin for our church and house; thirdly, I got full into the pursuit of prayers for England again. I had hardly expected anything could be done in this last way under the excited state of feelings in Ireland against England. I began, however, speaking in a convent in Carlow, and so warm and beautiful was the way in which these nuns took it up, that I lost no occasion after of saying mass in some convents every morning, and preaching to them upon it; and the zeal which they showed has given me a new spring to push it on in England. Accordingly, I have been preaching many times on it since I have been this time in Lancashire. I only ask now one Hail Mary a day to be said by every Catholic for the conversion of England. Here is a great field to work upon. You want to be doing something for England, I know; why not take up this object, and in every letter you write abroad or at home make people promise to do this, and make every man, woman, and child do it too. If millions would do as much as this, we should have thousands who would offer themselves up as victims to be immolated for the object, and we should have grand results. Above all, let it be done in schools at home; so that all the young may be trained to pant for this object, as young Hannibal for the destruction of Rome; and a foundation will be laid for the work to go on after we are all dead, if no fruit appears before."
In a letter to Father Vincent, he writes almost in the same strain:—
"My journey to Ireland was satisfactory in several respects to a certain degree. It answered well for begging purposes. With all their poverty, they are so generous that I made one of my best week's begging in Dublin. I hope for a great deal more in November, when I am going again to preach in Dublin, and will stay as long as I can. I picked up also one novice, not a cleric, but, I hope, a very promising lay brother. I think there will be many good subjects for us in Ireland, when we are better known there.' (In this his expectations were most signally realized.) "I also got into the pursuit of prayers for England again. I said mass, and preached after mass ten times in convents on the subject, and the zeal and charity with which it was taken up by the good religious quite gave me a new spring in that cause. I have begun preaching in England for prayers. Will you help me in this? I have been writing, with Father Dominic's approval, to our General, to obtain some indulgences for those who will join in those prayers."