The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-13 00:00:00

way in which she was deserted in her hour of
need. Mr. FORSTER is quite wrong, however, in
saying that our interference would have turned a
local war into a general one. Germany would only
have been too glad to retire from the contest,
and to have relinquished an attempt which had
drawn down the wrath of the two chief Powers of
Europe. As for the " awful responsibility of our
spreading the scourge of war where it would not
have come without us," this is very false reasoning,
and not all the right way to regard matters. As
for Prussia, the scourge of war was richly deserved
there, and the true principle to guide the actions of
individuals and the policy of nations is to consider
what is right, and leave the consequences alone. It
never does any service to ourselves or others to
palliate error and condone crime, and the schemers
of Prussia will yet bitterly regret the false kindness
shown to them by this country, when decision at the
outset would have deterred them in their faulty course.
Mr. FORSTER deserves credit for speaking out his
mind, and not shilly-shallying over important
matters, and he is the exponent of a view which
many eminent and enlightened persons take ; but
not the less is it a mischievous and mercenary one,
and calculated to lower the tone of public morality,
while it militates against the high and heroic senti-
ment that should alone actuate the councils of a
mighty nation, and animate the heart of a great
people. War is a dreadful thing, but disgrace is a
worse one, and the true spirit which should actuate
the representatives of a great country should be to
regard their material interests as secondary and subor-
dinate to the primary claims of truth and justice. " I
could not love them half so much, loved I not hon-
our more," is a fine sentiment, and one which it
would be well.to see more generally exercised and
freely appreciated in the community of our day and
I. generation. The welfare of commerce, the flourish-
ing of trade, the prosperity of capitalists, are not to
be put before the keeping of promises and the main-
tenance of our just influence, or, if they are, we
shall pay a heavy price for their Usurpation. It is
time that those ideas of honour which our ancestors
cherished to so great an extent were a little more
current among us, or we shall find that in grasping
at shadows we have lost the substance. We must
not expect to have all the sunny side of the
world to ourselves. If we partake largely of the
blessings of Providence, we should not allow the
possession of power and wealth to make us hard and
selfish, or we shall be abusing our gifts, instead of
making them conducive to the welfare and interests
of others, which is the only way to make them truly
valuable.

The Brompton Oratory.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

beg to forward to you enclosed a copy of
a letter on the subject of Mrs. IVl'Dermott's case,
which I have forwarded to-day to Mr. Selfe, the
magistrate, at the Westminster Police Court.—l
am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. D. DALGAIRNS.
The Oratory, London, S.W., Jan. 12.

The Oratory, London, S.W., Jan. 12.
Sir,—As by your letter of the 10th inst. you have de-
clined to allow " any verbal statement to be made in the

Police Court," the only course open to me is, as you your-
self have suggested, to make a statement in writing to
which, according to your promise, I doubt not that you
will give the same publicity as you have given to the Rev-
Frederick Blunt's letter. I conceive that lam bound to
make this statement, and that you are bound to receive it
for the following reasons :
-
_

With a candour which does you honour you have said
hat ." Father Bowden's story is true in every respect, as
ar as he has stated that it was the girl's own act, and no

suggestion on his part." You add that "there is not the
slightest pretence for saying that she has been coerced or
kidnapped into this institution." You sent her back there
yourself, and you advised the mother to leave her there,
stating that there are strong reasons for her being there,
which you cannot communicate to the mother. Such a
testimony from a man in your position, who has seen the

girl in private, where she could be under uo suppose

"fear of the fathers," dispenses me from the necessity o.
so far defending the conduct of Father Bowden.

You, however, attach great blame to him for not having
informed the mother of the girl's determination, and for

not having asked her consent. You also say that "You do
not believe what Father Bowden said respecting Mrs.
M‘Dermott's character from mere hearsay." Now, I quite
allow that I am bound to show cause for this part of his
conduct.

J. D. DALGAIRNS.
11. $. selfe, Esq., Totrainoter Folio-court.

To advise a child to quit her parent's roof is a very grave
act ; as a general rule it would undoubtedly be unlawful ;
and you would have a perfect right to blame Father Bow-
den unless he can prove that that parent is totally un-
worthy to have the care of her child. This is what I feel
I am bound to prove, and what I called upon you to give
me an opportunity of publicly proving when I wrote to
you. I conceive that you are bound to hear me. I still
think that your proper course would have been to have
allowed me to bring forward witnesses. In the open court
you have attacked a clergyman, and evoked a cry of in-
dignation against him from a considerable and dangerous
class of his countrymen. In the open court you should
hear his justification. You administered to him what you
yourself acknowledged to be an extra-legal, though very
severe, rebuke. You have no right now to fall back upon
your legal character and refuse to hear his justification, on
the plea that you have no case before you. You have
publicly constituted him a culprit. In public you should
hear his defence. I, however, waive this point, and only
leave it to you to give this letter such publicity as your
sense of justice will dictate.
I now proceed to bring proof that Mrs. M`Dermott is not
a fit person to have the charge of her children. That proof
will be found in the records of your own court, where Mrs.
M‘Dermott was sentenced to hard labour in the House of
Correction for seven days for shameful neglect of her chil-
dren. I quote from the West Middlesex Advertiser, N0v.12,
1859 :
"Dreadful Destitution and Neglect.—At the last meet-
ing of the board of guardians for the parish of St. Luke,
Chelsea, the master of the workhouse reported that the
police had brought to the house three children, of the ages
of ten, seven, and five years. They had been found on
Sunday morning in an empty house in Camera-place,
King's-road. There was nothing in the house but an old
broken table, a broken chair, a coal-sack for a bed, no
firing, and no food. The poor children had nothing upon
them but a few filthy rags, and the youngest was all but
naked. Their heads were full of vermin, and the heads of the
two younger were absolutely eaten into holes.' A sister
came to the workhouse on Sunday evening with a note from
their mother, demanding that they should be given up to
her, but Mr. Sutton, the master, refused to let them go ex-
cept their mother came herself for them. On Monday morn-
ing Mr. Sutton took them to the Westminster Police-court,
and the magistrate, on seeing their condition, granted a
warrant for the apprehension of the mother for neglecting
them. She was taken before the magistrate the same day,
and remanded to the following day, when she was severely
reprimanded, and committed to the House of Correction for
seven days with hard labour. We have been informed that
the woman's name is li'Dermott. Her husband and the
father of the poor children, was a blind man, and, it is said,
was originally a steward of Lord Durham."
Such is the woman whom the papers have represented
as a sorrowing mother sitting at home in desolate anxiety
on account of the absence of a daughter whom a Catholic
priest had persuaded to enter into a conventual establish-
ment. And where was that mother living at the time that
her deserted children were starving in abject misery ? I
have no enmity against Mrs. M'Dermott, and I have no
wish to blacken her character. If, however, you desire it,
I can bring forward the inspector of police who was con-
cerned in her apprehension, who can tell you on his oath
where he found her.
In my last interview with you I informed you that, not
being personally employed in the parish, I did not know
anything about the woman's character myself, but that I
should inquire among the fathers what was known to jus-
tify the opinion which I had often heard expressed by
them, that she was most thoroughly untrustworthy. I
have now given you a portion of the results of my inquiry.
With such antecedents as these it is not surprising that the
girl, neglected as she was by her mother, should be, as you
know, in the greatest danger.
I think you will allow that even granting that, as'you
think, it might have been better for Father Bowden to tell the
mother where her daughter had gone, this is an exceptional
case, and there is a great deal to be said on the other side.
He had, at all events, some reason for supposing that the
mother would not have allowed the daughter to go to the
House of Refuge. Nay, lam not altogether without hope
that Mr. Blunt himself would see the propriety of the girl's
aal 'nadn
countryhoe trh fortune Ceorhf awr ilhenos
shamefullythhctasse rvb
e Bowden,niecenogis
ol
convicted
e
following the advice even of a Catholic priest who, like
t tihne gratuitouslypb,eyh siiphdr ending his life
rathereenl
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her
g
even certain that, if he had known the facts which you
with perfect propriety have withheld from the mother,
and, with the benevolence which characterises him, had
wished to take measures to save the poor girl's imperilled
virtue, he would have chosen that mother as his confidante.
Perhaps he would have hesitated before he took up the
defence of this woman if he had known that, since October
last, she has written a begging letter to this very Father
Charles Bowden, whom she is now accusing, while she was
receiving relief from the reverend gentleman himself.
On the whole, sir, with these facts before them, I do not
doubt that the only public about whose good opinion we
that of
puuititiFnaathiteirnCtohyaroluers
slightest jurisdiction over him.
BneoewddceanreOf Yarinsedilcreintcilousnisave;ewilthal
power to rate him so severely, although you. had not the
and for your fairness uring a part of theseproceedings,
Thankistg you for dyour courtesy to
the
personallyl
remain, sir, yours faithfully,