The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-12 00:00:00

BER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, April 11.
The Queen, accompanied by her Royal High-
ness Princess Louise, walked and drove in the
grounds this morning.

The o:her members of the Royal Family also
went out.

The Prince of Wales ride out, and the Princess
of Wales drove our, yesterday.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
FRANCE.

MARSEILLES, April 11 (Evening.)
Letters from Barcelona received here yesterday
state that the outbreak had a purely socialistic cha-
racter, and the conscription was used as a convenient
pretext. It is further stated that the troops fought
with great bravery, capturing formidable barricades
by artillery, and that the insurgents, although de-
serted by the majority of the inhabitants, made
an obstinate resistance.

BOURSE, April 11.—Three o'clock—The mark e
closed as follows :

Bank Shares• 2820
Ital'an Rives 55 35
Austrian Fives
Ottoman Loan
Do. Debt 4B 20
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —
Deferred —
Cash
Orleans
Western
Northern
Strasburg
• •
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern..., • 6o7i
Sardinian
Austrian 7BB
Lombard 4421
l'orth of Spain 65
Saragossa
Roman 49

per Cont.
t per Cents 73 57
End of month— 73 474
';redit;4.toUilier 267 50
Transatlantic 202 50

'redit Funcier l 272 500
Paris Gas 1715
Suez Canal 275

RAIL WA'

SPAIN.

MADRID, April 11, Evening.

The following particulars have been received re-
specting the suppression of the outbreak at Gracia :
The attacking party consiste 1 of four columns of
troops, but only one of them took part in the right.
Two soldiers were killed and thirteen wounded. The
loss of the insurgents was 19 dead and 10 wounded,
and 42 prisoners were captured by the troops.
The latter also took 79 rifles and 20,000 cartridges.
Courts-martial hat e been improvised in the villages
in the neighbourhood of Barcelona, which are occu-
pied by the military.

Small columns of troops are still in pursuit a
'ugitives, who are scattered in various directions.
BAYONNE, April 12.

Some important Carlist chiefs have entered Spain,
and it is expected that a Carlist movement will
shortly commence in several provinces.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 11.

The Egyptian plan relative to Consular jurisdic-
tion has been slightly modified by Nubar Pasha, and
has subzequently been approved by the Porte.
It is in substance identical with the plan adopted
by the International Commission.
Nubar Pasha will leave for Marstilles on Wednes-
day next.

AMERICA.
(By Cable).
NEW YORK, April 11.

The suit was commenced to-day in the United
States Circuit Court on behalf of the English share-
holders against the directors of th,l Erie Railway.
It is based on the charge that the directors have
illegally obtained the control over the company's
affairs, and have unwarrantably involved them in
disastrous obligations.
The comphinants apply for an injunction against
the directors until the suit shall be decided.

The defendants must file their answer by the 2nd
of May next.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1131; the highest quotation during the day
was 1141; the lowest, 1131

Sterling Exchange on London

5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882
1885
1867
106,

10-40

Illinois .

~ 159

Erie

Cotton—Mid. upla❑d ..

251

23c

Petroleum—Standard White
Flour—Extra State, $1 40e. to $5 Oc. Corn—Old
mixe,i, $1 9c,

The Sportiug Gazette states that the suppression
of coursing in the tome Park, Hampton Court, has given
so much dissatisfaction to the farmers and other occu-
piers of land resident in the Harrow and other districts

hunted by th 9 Royal Buckhounds, that they have made
up their minds to prevent all persons connected with the
Royal Pack from riding over their land next season. The
matter is, it is said, to be brought before the 'notice of
Parliament.

THE NORWICH BRIBERY PROSECTITIONS.—It
appears that Mr. Justice Blackburn, who passed sentence
upon Robert Hardiment, on his conviction forbribery at the
last Norwich municipal election, has declined to make an
order lacing him in the first class of misdemeanants.
The prisoner has consequently, been relegated to the
prison dress, and is treated as an ordinary misdemeanant,
and his friends propose to obtain, if possible, a mitigation
of his sentence.

ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL.—WO last week re-
ferred which
tendency s
in France
seekinghahas
fur:e
en
art
phdleirinlooer enormousn Withinoatc counml
ytuhli
ean tpLi a
so no
tn
week
ofeneckabptuhi capital as l
and elsewhere. We may cite the latest evidence of the
eagerness with which investors seek to place their money
in respectable securities. The Orleans and Chalous
invitedßail-
way,each,
and sub
whencr
insip-
he se
there
ef
obligations
w ne r
e foextension,
fd tbe no less than
£17,385,500 applied for—not from a few large capitalists,
but from 45,456 different persons.—The Bullionist.
ttwhienysff listoo
rrw2tahl:2cl36loous7ei ts
RUSSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.—The Indian Public
Opinion, of March 8, states that Russian advance in
Cmtral Asia has received a severe check. The revolt in
Khokand has ended in the expulsion of the Russians, and
Khudayar Khan again rules the country. Yakuli Khush
Begi is strengthening his position, and arming his troops
with breechloaders. Russia has been forced back twenty
marches beyond the line of the Tianslim, the limit with
which she professes to be satisfied. The Indian Public
Opinion asserts that the Chinese Emperor relinquished
his possessions in Turkestan by a formal act some time
since, and that no recent concessions have been made to
Russia.

A SPANISH DOCTOR'S BILL.—An extraordinary
doctor's bill has been sent to Mr. Thomas Charlton, of
North Shields. Mr. Charlton is the owner of several large
ships, and the master of one of them fell ill of a fever at
Cartbagena. He had to be brought on shore to lodgings.
For attendance upon him while in the ship and fifteen
days ashore at lodgings the Spanish medical man charges
the owner of the vessel £BOO, with £5O for his assistant;
£l5O is charged for the fifteen days' lodgings, and the
whole amount for attendance on the sick captain, a
good deal less than a month, is £1,300. As the owner
is held liable for all sick persons landed from his vessel,
the little bill has been sent in to Mr. Charlton. He has
brought the subject under the attention of the North
Shields Shipowners' Society, and it is being referred to tho
Foreign Office.

The very extensive Distillery now being erected
at Belfast, with all recent improvements for the manufacture of
Irish whisky, by Bessie. DUNVILLE & Co., who h•Lve gained
a world-wide, celebritv for their fine old Irish whisky, is to he
called " The Royal Irish Distillery."

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Morning. Evening
TUESDAY 2 miu past 11 42 min past 11
WEDNESDAY 0 min past 12 12 min past 12
THURSDAY... ..... ........40 mill past 12 5 min past 1
FRIDAY.I, sot .e• ............ 80 mm past 6, 50 Mill past 1

LADY GERTRUDI DOUGLAS UPON
MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—Will you kindly oblige me by inserting the
enclosed communication in the columr,s of your
paper?

Having read in the limes of March 30 the ac-
count of Mr. Newdegate's successful motion respect-
ing the examination of monastic institutions, I ti.ink
that the experience of one who has leen herself for
five years a met-111.er of one of the clo'stered convents
of our land may be of service in. removing a few pre-
judices and I copular delus'ons, or at least in fur-
nishing some correct informat'on on a stit,jeq Which,
while it occupies so large a share of the public at-
tention, is by the majority very little understood.
lam the eldest daughter of the late Lord Queens-

berry. At the age of 21 I entered the Convent of
the Good Shepherd at Hammersmith, and after a
three years' noviciate—interrupted by a residence of

five months in my own family, during the period
which immediately succeeded the death of my
brother, Lord Francis Douglas, on the Matterhorn—
I was professed and became a sister of the " Black
Veil" in 1867. I wa4 then sent successively to
houses of the Order in Liverpool and Glasgow. At
the expiration of two years (for reasons which I do
not feel myself called upon to state, but which were
personal, grave, and important, and which had
nothing to do with the convents or nuns, to all of
whom I am warmly attached) I wished to return to
my home. No difficulty was math in allowing me to
see and to converse with the Ecclesiastical Superior
of the diocese. At my request he came to see me,
and treated me with the most indulgent and fatherly
kindness, and, af[er a short delay, he released me
from my vows and allowed me to return to my
family. To Protestant authority in such a case I
would never have appealed, and had my Ecclesias-
tical Superiors refused to 'sanction my application
for freedom, had they imposed the smalest re-
s raint on my conscience where the real tie existed,
then would the Commission of Inquiry which
Mr. Newdegate wishes to set on foot have been
perfectly useless to procure my " liberation," as
I should most decidedly have declined to take
advantage of its interference in a matter
which simply regarded my own conscience, and
this not from contempt, but from a conviction,
which nothing could shake, that no autho-
rity from God could rest with any but
the priests of the Holy Catholic Church, to whom
alone He gave the power to " bind and to release."
This is, I know, the conscientious belief of every nu❑
I have ever known. This example should be enough
to convince Mr. Newdegate and his party that' there
does exist for every nun a certain Court of Appeal in
the persons of her Ecclesiastical Superiors, and that,
moreover, it is the only Court of Appeal that can be

of any service to her. If any girl or woman dares
to assert she is detained by compulsion in ber con-

vent she speaks falsely. Every nun has the same
liberty as' had. Let her use it if she will!
It is not true that any ona is ever " liable to be

subjected to a discipline for which she is not pre-
pared.' In every convent there is a Novice Mis-
tress, whose duty it is to exercise the novices in
the " discipline" of the House. My experience

enables me to assert that " the roughest and
hardest side" of the picture was a'ways shown in
the noviciate ; nor did I ever after I became a
professed nun see the smallest alteration in rule or
discipline ; nor did I ever see any one called upon to
exercise any obligation for which she bad not been
thoroughly prepared as a novice. It is not true,
as far as my experience goes—and I think it may
be allowed to be greater on this subject than that of

any gentleman of the House of Commons —that
" letters are intercepted," or that there is not
perfect " liberty to communicate with friends." .1
always saw my friends alone—my-relations not only
alone, but whenever they chose to call. My molter
on three several occas.ons spent a few drys in the
outer part of the convent, during wLielt time I spent
the whole days with her, and alone. My leLt,r.

were never interceptc.d. I wrote to whom I
pleased, and when I liked ; and the same liberty
exi3ted for every sister in the House. Upon my
leaving the convent the money which I had given
at my profession was unhesitatingly offered back to
me. I refused it; but neith r the Superioress nor
my Ecclesiastical Superior would accept the paper
I had written renouncing my claim to it. They re-
mained inexorable on this point; nor was it until
I had returned home that, without asking their
consent, and against the advice of every ecclesiastic
I consulte], I carried out my purpose of leaving my
dowry where it, hal been placed, and of securing it
to the noblest and most exalted charity on earth—
the work of the Good Shepherd.
And now, Sir, allow me to remark, I am most in-
timately acquainted with between 80 and 100 nuns.

I have been one of them in the work-rooms, classes,
refo'matory schools, as well as in the more private
life of the community. • I have seen them under
all circums•an.ces ; but never for one moment have I
heat d the shadow of a complaint against the justice
and affection of the Superioresses. There reigned
about one and all of them, without exception, a
spirit of simple, childlike confidence and attachment
for their Superior ; a warm devotion to their work
and their Order. I never in the course of those five
years heard an expression of d'scontent upon the
lips of any of the sisters. I never heard one regret
her liberty or desire to escape from the obliga-
tions that were the delight of her daily life. They
all seemed happy, really and truly happy, as it has
never been my lot to see any in the word. I am
speaking now of the profes_ed. The novices are,
of course, pezfectly flee, and come and go continu-
ally ; though, I must say, more of them are dis
missed as unfit for the life than leave of their own
accord.

In conclusion, I have only to remark that, though
I am no longer myself a member of the convent,
I shall never look back to the days I spent there
but with the warmest gratitude and affection. I
shall never forget the unvarying love which was
shown to me by the Superiores3es and the sisters,
without a single exception, and that to the last, after
they knew I meant to leave ; and I shall never
think of the convent enclosure, which Mr. Newde-

gate and others so unjustly desire to violate, but as
a home which has been the scene of some of the
brightest recollections of my life. A sense of honour
and justice has induced me to come forward with
these statements, and as I am now entirely removed
from any " conventual influence," I trust that the

English public will allow my testimony to weigh
with it in future when the subject of convents is
brought up as a topic for conversation, seeing that,
as I have already observed, I may, perhaps, justly
claim to know more about the interior of convents
than eith?r Mr. Newdegate or any other gentleman
can ever possibly hope to do.
Trusting to your p Alence and your sense cf
justice to make this public,
I remain, sir, yours faithfully,
GERTRUDE DOUGLAS.
11, Rue Prince Albert, Boulogne-sur-;filer,
Palm Sunday, 1870.

AN INTERCHANGE OF UIFTS.—Le Umlois says
that Marshal Prim has recently made a present to the
Emperor Napoleon of 20,000 cigars with gilt ends and
ornamented with the Imperial N., also gilt, on each
ciear, which is estimated to be worth lift. In return
the Emperor has sent to the Spanish Marshal a pair of
rases of Sevres manufacture'

Maryland proposes to punish prize-fighters and
'their trainers by imprisonment of from one to five years,
and spectators of a prize fight by a fine of from 100 dols.
to 1,000 dols.

On Sunday night a private telegram was received
in London stating that the Spanish° Government have
released the American steamer Lloyd Aspinwall,
?idz94 some time ago at tuba, aad they have promised
indsitanit.v. " °' - • -