PATRICK TAGGART.
Accordingly, a church was built for Kelso at the expense of Mr. Hope-Scott. It could hardly have been finished more than a year or two, when, on the night of August 6-7, 1856, it was attacked by a Protestant mob, set fire to, and burned to the ground, with the schoolhouse and dwelling-house adjoining, including books, vestments, and furniture, the property of Mr. Hope-Scott. Four of the ringleaders were put on their trial on November 10. In charging the jury, otherwise fairly enough, 'the Lord Justice-Clerk remarked that, as to whether it were necessary that Mr. Hope-Scott should build the Roman Catholic chapel at Kelso or not, the jury might have very considerable doubts, as it appeared that the priest did not live there, but some miles distant at Jedburgh; but that was a matter which the prisoners had nothing to do with, as every one was at liberty to build such a place of worship if he chose; neither did it matter whether the attack upon the chapel was made in consequence of any attempts to proselytise Protestants to the Catholic faith. In going over the evidence, his lordship said he could have wished that Mrs. Byrne, the schoolmistress, had given timely notice to the police of what she had heard as to the resolution to fire the chapel, as that would have been a better course than quitting the chapel. However, they could not blame the poor woman; and perhaps, being a Catholic, she might not like to make an appeal to the police.' (Quoted from the report in the 'Scottish Press,' November 11, 1856. [Footnote: I italicise the last sentence, which at first sight gives a curious idea of the practical equality of legal protection existing for Catholics at the time; though probably all that was intended to be conveyed is the strange impression that Catholics might entertain a scruple about appealing to the police.—R. O.])
The jury's verdict would surprise any unprejudiced reader who studies the evidence. They found the charge of wilful fire-raising not proven against the prisoners, but found three of them guilty of mobbing and rioting, but, in respect of their previous good conduct, recommended them to mercy. The three got off with eighteen months' imprisonment and hard labour. I quote the following remarks on the affair generally, and on the Lord Justice- Clerk's charge, from an article in the 'Scotsman,' republished by the 'Northern Times' of November 15, 1856: [Footnote: I have not met with any letter of Mr. Hope-Scott's to the Scotsman, but this article is probably from his pen.—R. O.]—
In the town of Kelso there is, it seems, a more or less considerable colony of Irish; and it needs scarcely be said that the mixture of that element with the border material does not work together for the promotion of harmony and good order. At St. James's Fair, held at Kelso on 5th August last, a Scotch butcher-boy quarrelled and fought with an Irish mugger. Scotch and Irish rallied round these champions of the two countries, and in the mêlée which ensued, a young Scotchman was unhappily and barbarously killed. The Kelso crowd, in very natural rage, burned the muggers' camp, threw their carts into the Tweed, and drove them from the neighbourhood of the town. But there remained the resident Irish of the town, and it seems to have been deemed fitting to hold them guilty as art and part. It is not clear that any of them were in the fight—at least, no person among them was charged with the murder; but there is a short cut through all these difficulties. Most Irishmen are Roman Catholics—Kelso has a Roman Catholic chapel—let it be burned. Accordingly, after considerable talk and preparation (which seems to have included getting drunk), a mob assembled the next evening, and did burn the chapel with perfect ease and effect….
Some mystery may dwell in readers' minds as to how such an affair could be arranged and completed without any one but the rioters themselves having any voice thereanent. And the mystery is not quite cleared away by the evidence. The woman that lived under the chapel heard, on the day of the fair and the fight (i.e. the day before the incendiarism), that the chapel was to be burned, and slept out of her house, so as not to be in the way; coming back the next day she heard the same rumour, and left again at night—when it happened as she had been foretold. But though other witnesses, some of whom had witnessed the burning, testified that the design had been talked about all day, the chief magistrate mentions in his evidence that he 'had not had the slightest expectation of a disturbance;' the superintendent of police was in the same state of information, and the police constable 'had not taken any alarm.' All this, however, is of little consequence, seeing that when the alarm was taken, there was no result but that of disturbing two or three people who might as well have gone to bed. The guardianship of the town is confided to one county policeman, who must be a tumultuous sort of person himself, since he seems to require a 'superintendent' to keep him in order. The said superintendent, when he did know what was going on, first tried a little moral suasion, with the result usual in such cases: 'I cautioned them against proceedings of that kind, and advised them to go to their homes—they disregarded me.' His disposable force, condensed in the person of the 'police constable,' took the same course. 'We warned them'—the answer was a volley of stones. 'We retired, and went to all the magistrates.' 'By the time we got back the chapel was completely destroyed.' It would be unreasonable to blame the superintendent and his 'force' for not successfully fighting several hundred men, although we do think they might have done more as to identifying the ringleaders: the real blame lies with the authorities, who appear to have failed to provide decently adequate means for preserving the public peace. The use of a local police force must be measured, not by what it detects and punishes, but by what it prevents, or may reasonably be supposed to prevent….
So wide-spread is [the feeling that Roman Catholic chapels are somehow an intrusion and an offence] that it would almost appear as if the very bench were not placed above its influence. The Lord Justice-Clerk made some very sound and strong remarks on the nature of the outrage; but he added: 'Whether it was necessary on the part of Mr. Hope-Scott to build this chapel—which it scarcely seemed to be, seeing the priest did not live there, but at Jedburgh—or whether it was a prudent proceeding to attempt, by the erection of this chapel, to win converts to the Roman Catholic faith—was of no importance here.' Since it was of no importance, the expressed doubt and the implied censure had, we very humbly think, have been better avoided…. Though there had not been a single Roman Catholic in or near Jedburgh, Mr. Hope-Scott had a perfect moral as well as legal right to spend his money in building a chapel, without either having it burned down by a mob, or himself pointed at from the bench. As a matter of fact, however, there does appear to have been a congregation as well as a chapel. The Lord Justice-Clerk was pleased to add that the Roman Catholic school attached to the chapel 'could not but have been of the utmost use;' and we could thence infer that, Roman Catholic children having parents, there must have been use also for the chapel. The fact relied on, of the priest 'living at Jedburgh,' is evidence, we should think, not of a want of hearers, but of a want of funds to pay two priests. But look where we should be landed, on this hand or on that, if others than those that choose to provide the money are to decide where church-building is 'necessary' or is 'prudent.' The extreme chapel-attendance of Episcopalians in the county of Roxburgh was shown by the census to be 454; and for the accommodation of that number the county contains five chapels. Four of them might be pronounced not 'necessary,' and all of them not 'prudent.' Or, to go from the country of the rioters to that of the rioted upon. In our humble opinion, seven-eighths of the churches belonging to the Establishment in Ireland are utterly unnecessary, and every one of them very imprudent. Such, too, is notoriously the opinion of all but a fraction of the population among whom, and out of whose funds, these churches are built and maintained. The late lamented Roman Catholic chapel at Kelso was immeasurably less unnecessary and offensive than these; for not only had it a congregation, but was paid for only by those that used it or approved of it. Of course, the Lord Justice-Clerk did not mean that his opinion or that of any other man as to the chapel being unnecessary was any justification of the outrage—his lordship said the contrary very impressively; but his remark, though not what is called a fortunate one, is useful as indicating, in however faint and refined shape and degree, the feeling which on such topics is apt to lead us all more or less astray.
MISSIONS IN THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS: MOIDART.
The purchase by Mr. Hope-Scott of the estate at Lochshiel, in the wilds of Moidart, his 'Highland Paraguay,' as Cardinal Manning calls it, in an old letter to him (January 28, 1856), was attended, as I have already hinted (p. 150), by some noteworthy circumstances. In the first place, the condition of the Catholic remnant in the Highlands is, perhaps, little known even to Catholic readers. An interesting letter to Mr. Hope-Scott, dated October 12, 1854, from the Rev. D. Macdonald, in charge of the mission of Fortwilliam, furnishes a statistical table, from which it appears that in 1851, in the Highlands and insular districts within the range of his knowledge, there was but one single school, where, to do justice, considering the scattered population, there ought to have been twenty-six. The people were so miserably poor, that out of thirteen missions, only one could afford their priest 50_l_. per annum; one, 35_l_.; three, 30_l_.; and the rest, ranging from 25_l_. down to as low as 12_l_. per annum. Of course the priests could not subsist on these incomes without some other aid, and this was obtained by taking small farms, from which they endeavoured to eke out a living.
'In Moidart' (I here copy from another well-informed correspondent) 'a severe crisis had just passed over the people. The cruel treatment which has depopulated the greater portion of the Highlands, and converted large tracts of country into sheep-farms and deer-forests, had overtaken them. Dozens of unfortunate families occupying the more fertile portions of the estate were ruthlessly torn from their homes, and shipped away to Australia and America. Their good old priest, the Rev. Ranald Rankin, broken-hearted at the desolation which had come over his flock, accompanied the larger portion of these wanderers to the shores of Australia. His impression at the time was, that the whole of the country, sooner or later, would share the same unhappy fate; for in bidding farewell to his Bishop, the late Dr. Murdoch, Vicar-Apostolic of the Western District, he assured his lordship, who felt at a loss how to supply his place, that it was a matter of little or no consequence, as the mission was practically ruined already. The Bishop's reply was characteristic: "Moidart has always been a Catholic district; and so long as there remains one Catholic family in it, for the sake of its old steadfastness, I shall not leave it unprovided."'
In the meantime, Mr. Hope-Scott, having already become a landed proprietor in Ireland, in the county Mayo, much wished to possess also a Highland property. Lochshiel was offered to him; but, after consideration, he decided against taking it. In 1855 the estate was again in the market, but Mr. Hope-Scott had not heard of it. The owner, Macdonald of Lochshiel, was a Catholic, and, it may be presumed, a devout one, since he had the Blessed Sacrament and a priest in his house. He had been obliged to sell, and the property had been bought by a brother-in-law of his, named Macdonell, who added to the house. He, too, found himself obliged to sell, and this time the estate was on the point of passing into the hands of people from London who would have rooted out the Catholic population from the land. Hearing that it had been actually sold to Protestants, two old ladies of the same family, living at Portobello, went to the lawyer, and asked him, if possible, to postpone the signature of the deeds for nine or ten days, to give another purchaser a chance. He agreed to do so. They then commenced a novena that a Catholic might buy it. (I ought perhaps to explain, for the benefit of some of my readers, that Catholics have great faith in the efficacy of prayer persevered in for nine days when there is some important object to be gained.) The ninth day came, and Mr. Hope-Scott purchased the property, for the sum of 24,000_l_., without even having seen it. His attention had been drawn to it by the late Mrs. Colonel Hutchison, of Edinburgh, a lady well known among Scotch Catholics for her shrewd good sense and innumerable good works. He certainly was induced to purchase by the fact that Lochshiel had never been out of Catholic hands, and that all the population were Catholic, with the personal motive, however, of providing his wife with a quiet and pleasant change of residence.