rupted . Does he suppose that God would not support them in their holy work ? The Missionaries who ask for them - cannot they give him some advice about their conduct ? Are we not in direct and daily contact with Europe ? For sure , four or five Brothers in Malaysia would not be abandoned as he seems to think ! ... Do I not see ( the Protestants ) running after children of every age and condition and drawing them into their schools ? Are we to be their inferiors in this respect ? They must not succeed ; but it will not be for lack of effort and action - I tell you - and I repeat it , for it is the truth : here we must have a Brothers ' School ; it will do an immense good in this central place ... I just wish that you could take my place here for a few months or a few years and you would see how much this school is needed . - It is absolutely necessary that you procure me these Brothers or I shall have to come and fetch them myself - the worse for you if you do not succeed - have you received the copy of my letter to the Queen of France ? You do not say a word about it-
' I shall write to the council by the next mail- I must stop now , for it is time to go to bed .' He received a much more serious blow when news of the Revolution of 1848in France and of the flight of the Royal Family to England reached him :
' The Minister of the Interior , Monsieur Dumont , has replied to the request that I addressed to him , and he has promised me two magnificent pictures ( for the Good Shepherd ): but where is he at this moment himself ? The change of the Ministry and above all of the Government has brought all my requests to nothing . Farewell to the free passage for the Brothers on a naval vessel !' Toadd to his difficulties the Brothers in Paris were now saying tha t they were unable to find anyone who could teach English . Father Beurel was not to be put off . He wrote to Father Albrand :
' Here ismy plan indetail : -I want to have three Brothers of the Christian Schools , of whom one should be able to speak English well enough to teach it . In our school we will teach four languages : English , French , Chinese and Malay . The two last will be taught by Christian masters of the country , at least during the first years . We must also teach Mathematics very thoroughly , Drawing , Geography , Book-keeping , in a word all that is taught in good French schools as the Brothers do in France . Now itseems tome that ifthe Superior has no French Brother who can speak English perfectly , he has some in America or in Ireland , and that , in the interests of our religion , he could strive to find at least one from the schools established in those countries to send here . My God ! What one does to accomplish a project ! There are Brothers ' schools in America , in Ireland and even in England ... To what Congregation do the Brothers belong who are in the United States ? Find out about all that .
' I have made a public appeal to the chari ty of the people here , about the future school , and I was so well taken up that I raised four thousand francs in four days and I hope in the course of this week to raise the two thousand more that are needed .
' My principal donors are Protestants . I think six thousand francs are sufficient for the Brothers ' expenses . As for their maintenance here , I promise you that they will be the spoilt children of Divine Providence . ' As the days went by without any signs of progress and without any encouragement , he wrote :
' Certain colleagues tell me that my enterprise is more than my strength can sustain ; but I believe not , with the grace of God , for the joy that I experience in carrying it out makes me feel calm and light-hearted . ' When , in January 1849 , there was still no sign of advance he wrote :
' Wha t is the Kingdom of Heaven like ? Toa grain of mustard seed ? To a little leaven . Give me this grain of mustard seed and perhaps a fine tree will grow out of it . Give me a little leaven and perhaps my dough will become ready to make an excellent bread . Everything must have a beginning , even the most gigantic things in nature .
' We have baptized 143 adults this year .'
In May 1849 he was deeply despondent . He said that he was awaiting the reply of Brother Philip with impatience , but that he was sure that the reply would not comply with his intentions or his needs . It was impossible-beyond the impossible . ' We each live in different spheres : his ideas cannot be mine .'
The Bishop added not a word of encouragement , but , on the contrary , made Father Beurel signa formal declaration to the effect that if the Brothers came to Singapore no charges whatever should be made to the Mission ' s account .
Rebuffed , but undeterred , Beurel continued to follow his conviction alone . In July he informed Father Albrand that he had bought a beautiful new property near his church , where he proposed to have a Convent when his school was established . ' So Iam not yet at the end of my worries ,' he added . ' I want to unite in the same establishment a school for young girls and an asylum for orphans and for the destitute .'
Meanwhile there had been some advance in Paris . Father Albrand had drawn upanagreementwith the Brother Superior on the conditions of service in Singapore . There were still no Brothers in sight , however , and for a year Father Beurel had no definite hope that they were coming . He now found himself drawn inexorably to the conclusion that he would have to go to Europe himself .
In July 1850 , he had another setback : his Bishop forbade him to make the journey to France . The only thing he felt he could do was to go and petition the Bishop himself . The Mission Council was about to meet in Penang , and so to Penang he went . Face to face with Monsignor Boucho he achieved his desire , but only on certain conditions .
' Monsignor regards the completion of my plan of action as almost impossible , but I abandon my-
The Founder and the First Brothers 3