 He learned to read the literatures and dialects of Western and Northern Europe, and spoke Latin fluently, as can be seen in the text of the Second of the Plenary Councils of Baltimore.In addition, he was a profound Semitic scholar, with a special predilection for Syriac.On the death of Bishop John England in 1842 he was recalled to Charleston, where he taught in the seminary, doing parochial work in the meantime, and in conjunction with Dr. Lynch edited the "United States Catholic Miscellany".