i866.] "THE CARPENTER COLLECTION." 287 



holiday.' 5 He attributed the sobriety of the Irish to the labours 

 of his " good friend Murphy and others," and Father Hoyle 

 had made a special appeal to his flock to be abstainers, at all 

 events on that day. The raid actually took place in the 

 following June, near Niagara. There was, of course, great 

 excitement at Montreal, and a check was put to sanitary work. 



In a postscript to a letter, June 4, 1866 (announcing the 

 raid), he says, " I see in telegram by Nova Scotia that the Bank 

 of London has failed ; so I must cast about for the ways and 

 means to earn more money." He had invested most of his 

 little property in shares in this bank, from which he was 

 receiving £200 a year. A fortnight later, he wrote to Mr. 

 Robson : " It's a poor story if I can't earn my living. I 

 consider the poverty a godsend for Robbie, who has just gone 

 to work at a foundry and machine-shop. I let him go the 

 round of the factories, but he soon chose this." He felt 

 anxious, however, lest his wife, who greatly needed sea-air, 

 should refuse to let the expense be incurred ; but the gene- 

 rosity of his aunt and of his brother-in-law at Bristol relieved 

 them of any immediate anxiety.* 



It is characteristic of him, that he chose this time to make 

 a present of his shells to the McGill College, instead of selling 

 them to retrieve part of his loss. He wrote to Professor 

 Dawson (June 26, 1866) : "I brought with me from England 

 a very large general collection of shells, which I have been 

 forming now for about thirty-three years. Its commercial 

 value in London has been estimated by Mr. Sowerby at ^1000 

 sterling : its proportionate value, were I to sell it in the United 

 States, would be about double. I consider that sum the lowest 

 value of the scientific labour I have put upon it, without regard 

 to the 'raw material.' It is not such a collection as an amateur 

 would value, as it contains but few expensive shells ; but for 

 the real uses of a student, I believe it is not equalled on this 

 continent. I believe that no public museum in America 



* In the first uncertainty, he feared that the rest of his property might 

 be involved by the failure ; but in the course of the next ten years he 

 received back about a third of what he had paid for the shares at a 

 premium. 



