p. 2

But on the other hand my congregation had expressly written to the Archbishops fourteen
months ago, in answer to a communication from them, as follows;- "August 8 1857. We
conceive we do not mistake in interpreting your Grace to mean, that you wish to gain
our consent to our Father Superior's residence in Dublin, as during the last three years, for
an indefinite time to come. Now we are sanguine that we shall be able, by a statement
of the circumstances of the case, to carry your Graces with us in the conclusion, to which
we have come ourselves, that such a further leave of absence from the oratory, to be granted
to our Fr. Superior, is simply incompatible with our duty to Sr. Philip, and that we cannot
with a clear conscience make ourselves partners to it."

And in the previous May I had received at Dublin from the oratory the following
notice: - "Congr: Gen : May 5 1857 Whereas by Decree of May 6 1852 we gave permission
to our Father Superior to accept the office of President of the Catholic University, and
whereas the time has long since expired which we contemplated for his absence, when we
gave here that permission, and whereas we find we cannot continue longer the great
inconvenience arising from his protracted separation from us; We hereby unani-
mously determine, in general congregation assembled, that his leave of absence shall end,
and that in virtue of obedience to Sr. Philip, he must return to us."

Under these circumstances, bound by duty to be here, bound by honour
to residence in Dublin, as a necessary condition of the Rector's office, a condition
which my own judgment accepts, and yours also, what is left to me but to resign it?

2. As to my congregation. Our Fathers here wish me distinctly to bring
to your knowledge, what you may not have heard, that, far from bidding me to
relinquish the office of Rector, or from precluding me from any residence whatever
in Dublin, they wished, in a correspondence with the Archbishops last Summer year, of
which I have already extracted a portion, to come to a compromise or middle measure,
by which I was to be allowed for the two years then to come, to reside in Dublin for
some weeks in every term of the University Session. This proposal, which was
with