et old friends and to win new ones; as well as to learn practically
the condition of the church in all parts of Europe.

When he returned to New York in 1838 he found that Bishop Du Bois had,
overcome by difficulties and trials, finally abandoned his projected
seminary; and now desired to assign him to parochial work. With the
well-trained priest to hear was to obey. Yet the position of the bishop
was one of difficulty. An uncatholic national feeling had been aroused
some years before in New York, assuming under Bishop Connolly all
obsequiousness to that prelate and zeal for his honor; under Bishop Du
Bois its whole power was wielded against him; and as few of the leaders
in the movement were practical Catholics, appeals to their religious
sense fell unheeded.

The parish offered to Rev. Mr. McCloskey presented difficulties of its
own. The last pastor, his old friend and brother-collegian, Rev. Charles
C. Pise, had indiscreetly aroused a deep and bitter feeling against
himself, and the hostile party in the congregation was led by a man of
learning and real attachment to his religion, though of little
self-control. For the Rev. Mr. McCloskey to assume the pastorship of St.
Joseph's required no little courage. He was as obnoxious on some grounds
as his predecessor, being like him American by birth, trained at
Emmittsburg under Bishop Du Bois. In this conjuncture the Rev. John
McCloskey displayed what must be recognized as the striking virtue of
his character, the highest degree of Christian prudence, and with it and
through it, courage, firmness and self-control. He repaired to the post
assigned to him by his bishop, and entered upon the discharge of his
duties. The Trustees ignored his appointment utterly, made no
appropriation for his salary, took no steps to furnish his house, so
that he had not even a table to write upon. "But," as His Grace
Archbishop Corrigan well says, "the young priest was equal to the
emergency. He discharged his duties as sweetly, as if there never had
been a suspicion of dissatisfaction; he prepared his sermons as
carefully, as if the best audience New York could afford were there to
listen." His parish extended up to the line of Harlem; but he complained
neither of his treatment, nor of the labor of the day and the heat; and
men ready and anxious to complain, found that they had to do with a
priest who gave them not a tittle to bear before the people as a
grievance to complain about. The clou