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 travelled free in Ireland, through the courtesy of the coach proprietors, and received large sums for the furtherance of his mission, he was soon immersed in pecuniary difficulties. In 1844 he became so involved that he was for a short time incarcerated for debts, none of which were incurred for personal expenditure. Father Mathew was untiring in his exertions during the famine years of 1845-'6-'7. In 1847, on the death of Dr. Murphy, his name was sent forward to Rome by the Archbishop of his province and his suffragans as "dignissimus," on a list of candidates for the appointment of Catholic Bishop of Cork; and confirmation in the office was regarded by himself and others as certain. His was not the name selected. While bowing to the unexpected Papal decision, he felt the blow acutely—a blow lightened, however, by the reverence and love of the public, which thereafter assumed a character at once deeper, more affectionate, and more sympathetic than ever. The same year, mainly through the exertions of S. C. Hall, he was granted a Civil List pension of £300 by Lord John Russell, a sum which, though ample in itself, is understood to have been little more than sufficient to keep up the payments on policies of assurance on his life for the benefit of his creditors. After rigorous fasting in the Lent of 1848, he was attacked with paralysis of a very alarming character. His mind, fortunately, was not affected, the weakness in his limbs soon diminished, and the entreaties of friends and physicians were unable to prevent him from resuming his arduous labours in the temperance cause. More than two years, from the summer of 1849 to December 1851, were passed in a mission to the United States. He was received with great respect in the twenty-five States in which he travelled. He was honoured with a formal reception by the Senate, and was entertained by the President. His abstinence from all expression of opinion regarding the horrors of American slavery greatly disappointed his anti-slavery friends. There can be little doubt that the fatigues endured in this journey gave the finishing stroke to a frame already enfeebled by anxiety and disease. Yet to the warnings of physicians who recommended absolute rest, as necessary to preserve his life, he replied: "Never will I desert my post in the middle of the battle—it cannot be sacrificed in a better cause. If I am to die, I will die in harness." In February 1852, he was stricken with apoplexy; yet he recovered sufficiently to pass some months in Madeira, and on his return to his home—his brother's house at Lehenagh—resumed his old routine. "Day by day he became more feeble and helpless; still he would totter down the steps, and limp along the avenue, to meet a poor drunkard half-way, or to anticipate the arrival of a friend whom he had recognized from the window or the door. Sweetness, humility, and holiness marked every hour of his declining days." His last years were passed at Queenstown—a white-haired, venerable old man, slowly creeping along sunny places—his tottering steps assisted by a lad, on whose shoulder one hand of the invalid rested for support—softening of the brain sadly and darkly settling down upon him. He was often absorbed in prayer before the altar two hours of each day. He passed away, 8th December 1856, aged 66, in the forty-second year of his ministry, and was buried in the cemetery he was instrumental in establishing at Cork. Reference must not be omitted to Father Mathew's influence in curing or allaying diseases. Dr. Barter, the distinguished hydropathic physician, says: "I often witnessed great relief afforded by him to people suffering from various affections, and in some cases I was satisfied that permanent good was effected by his administration. Such satisfactory results, on so large a scale too, made him the more earnest in his purpose, and gave the recipient unbounded faith in his power; and the result from such a favourable combination of circumstances, could not be otherwise than beneficial to the public. Father Mathew possessed in a large degree the power of animal magnetism, and I believe that the paralytic affection from which he suffered, and which brought his valuable life to an untimely end, was produced by an undue expenditure of this power." His biographer, Mr. Maguire, thus summarizes the benefits that have accrued to Ireland mainly from Father Mathew's mission: "Formerly, drunkenness was regarded rather as a fault for which there were numerous excuses and palliations; now, drunkenness is looked upon as a degrading vice, and the drunkard finds no universal absolution from the judgment of society. Whatever opinion may be held as to the necessity of total abstinence, or the wisdom of moderation, there is but one opinion as to excess—that is one of just and general condemnation. Formerly, there was not a circumstance in one's life, or an event in one's family, or in the family of one's friend or acquaintance, that was not a legitimate excuse for a poor fellow 'having forgotten himself,' or 'being overtaken by  336