The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-08 00:00:00

STATEMENT OF THE ABBESS

MIECZI:~LAWSKA.

The Journal de Debate inserts the following answer from
the Polish priests at Rome to the second denial by the Rus-
3ian Government of the truth of the recital of the Abbess

Mieczislawska, which we have published. The answer to
it is transmitted
.to the Ddbats by the Count de Monte-
lembert :

" ANSWER TO THE ADDITIONAL NOTE DATED FROM ST.

• PETERSBURGH, MARCH, 1846.
" The venerable nun, whom it pleases the author of the ad-
ditional note to call 'the woman Mieczislaweki; never as-
sumed the title of Abbess of the convent of Komi°. We defy

the Russian diplomatists to cite from among the numerous
per Sons who have seen and conversed with her since her ar
rival within the Prussian territories, a single witness worthy
of credit wtio heard her take this quality. In the first decla-
ration made before the Archbishop of Posen, two months
before the publication of the article of the journal the Third
of May, she took her true title of Abbess of Minsk.
The error into which the journal, the Third of Vag, had
fallen, was rectified in the next day by that journal and lay
the Univers. Thus vanishes the first part of addition num-
ber 1. Remains the title of Abbess:of Minsk. The author
of this second note is forced to confess that, in the.first note,

it was Carefully concealed that in the said town of Minsk there
did exist a convent of Basilian nuns, and to acknowledge
that the mother Makrena did not arrogate to herself an im-
aginary title. Thus is confirmed by the admissions of Russia
herself the existence of. this convent, the reality. of -which
has been wilfully denied -;—thus is cotstfrined the testimony
of the old inhabitants of Lithuania, and particularly- that of
the Sisters of Charity at Wilna, as well as that of the Marquis
de Narp, an officer who was in the service of the French army
in 1812, now resident at Rome, all of whom attest the fact
from having been eye-witnesses of it, Driven to speak of the
convent of Basilian nuns at Minsk, the note gives its history
from 1834, and pretends that at that period it was converted
into a hospital. This assertion is completely false. In
1835, the convent still belonged to the Basilian nuns, and
by the fire which in. that year reduced Minsk to ashes, the
convent suffered severely. All the wealthy inhabitants of
the town witnessed the mother Makrena, with the sisters.
Wawrzecka and Cot/tit:silt, demanding' and receiving contri-
butionstowards the reparation'of the damages their convent
had sustained. It was not until 1838 that it was suppressed
by the violent expulsion of the nuns. As to the auginenta-
tion of revenue and other advantages of which the note
speaks, favours still enjoyed by the superior rof the convent
transferred from Minsk, there is the same sophistry, the same
falsehood as was inserted in the first note. If it be true that
the revenues of some convents have been increased by fresh
grants, it has been most assuredly only for the benefit ofsuch
nuns as have embraced the schism, and not of those who
have refused to do so; since these last have been treated as
servitors and Prisoners, and as no longer forming a legal
community. Besides it is literally, false to assert that any
new revenues have been conferred upon religious establish-
ments since the Russian Government, after having seized
their estates and property, has replaced the ample income:,
derived from them by very small pensions. Consequently
there is an evident falsity in this second part of the first ad-
dition. No person can be made to believe that the Russian
Government, which had seized the property of the convents,
can have augmented revenues no longer in existence, that
they can have been augmented in favour of nuns considered
to be rebellious heretics, and that these grants have• been
continued up to the present day. The fact referred to in
the addition N0..5 has never been disputed. It has not
been denied that some nuns may, on account of the state of
their health, have been allowed to return to their Catholic
families ;:but it is affirmed that these permissions have all
been anterior to the cruel persecutions of 1838. Addition
12.—The note affects to give the names of the superiors of
the convents existing in:1839. Here, again, it falls into vo-
luntary error. Thus, the superior of! Grodno was not Bai-
kowna, but blaliszweska; that of `Vitebsk was not Kasi-
merska, but Kublika ; that of Polock was not Kuleszawka.
but Kostrowna. From this let the confidence merited by the
writers of the note be judged, when they say that Ma-
krena Mieczislawska was not Abbess of Minsk. It may be
that in 1839 there were only nine convents of Basilian nuns
in Russia, for at that period persecution was already old.
It must be concluded that persecution had already borne its
fruits; for previously there were at least fifteen of these con-
vents in Russia, viz., those of Wilna, Grodno, Pinsk, Orza,
Minsk, Polofock, Witebsk, Novogrudesk, Zyrovice, Slonim,
Boruny, Beresweez, Czaswiki, Biala, and Foczajow. These
convents were inhabited by 245 nuns, as is proved by the
Calendars of the order printed before the persecution. The
convent of Minsk alone reckoned 35. If, therefore, there
were no more than 55 nuns in all, there would remain only
20 fur the other 14 convents, or one and a halt for each,
It is added that no change hal been made in the interior dis-
cipline of the convents. Nothing, certainly, beyond the re-
ligious faith and the persons of their inhabitants—the old
and the inha-
been martyr-
bfalittahnthsabs
abveeenbemeoamdentGo
rgeievoe.Rpluasc,9latons,a
osrchhisamve,
ised for remaining faithful to their creed. With these ex-
ceptions, it is true that there has been very little change.
The note concludes with two allegations—the first of which
is founded on a slight mistake, which it vainly endeavours
to exaggerate ; and the second of which, is branded with
flsgrant bad faith. It is true that the Governor of Minsk
was not named Uzakoff. The mistake arose from the
similitude between the two names Suzkoff and TJzakotl,
and not Usrakoff or Souchkoff, as the note, with a view to
delude, wishes to represent. It was in truth General Suszkoff
who was Governor of Minsk at the time of the persecution.
It may be easily imagined that the ear of the Abbess, or of
those who took down her testimony, may have misappre-
hended the sound, It will be easy to appreciate the declara-
tion which the note attributes to General Suszkoff, when it
is known that this personage is a man-of cruel and despotic
character, sent at that period to Minsk precisely to be the
executor of those pitiless orders against the Catholics, whom
it was determined to force by whatever means to apostatise.
In the second place, the note joins irony. to falsehood,
in affirming that the Princess Euphrosnia Giedymin, who
brought to life in 1838, died at Roile more than six
hundred years a W
go. e inform h earned author of
the note, that Christina Clara Giedymin, who took the
name of Euphrosina on becoming a nun, was visitrese gene-
ral of the order of Basilian nuns; that she is the person
designated under the name of mother-general—a title which
was gives to het according to custom—and that she it was
who perished miserably when she was being conveyed to
Siberia. It will be seen that the author of the note is
little versed in genealogies, although he pretends to have
consulted them. It will not be out of place to make him
acquainted with that of the nun whom he persists in calling
the woman Mieczislawska. Makrena blieczislawska be-
longs to a distinguished family of Poland, allied to the
princely family of Wistgenstein. She is the daughter of
Joseph Mieczislawski and Anna Jagiello, daughter of Casi-
Mir and Hedwige. She was born at Stokliszki, the estate of
her parents, in the ancient palatinate of Troki, in 1784. She
is not the only member of her family who has suffered for
religion. One of her .brothers, Calixt Mieczislawski, who
took the name of Onnphrus on entering the order of St.
Basil, was, on his refusal to forsake his religion, put into a I
cart, and so tightly bound, •that he perished on the way to
Smolensk°. Two of his companions, Szozerbvriski and
Cbryanowski, died with him in the same cart; and a fourth,
Zolkowski, expired on arriving at Sinolensko. We will add
that mother Makrena entered the order of St. Basil at
the age of twenty-three, in the convent of Biala, of which
her maternal aunt, Isabella Jagiello, was Abbess. Several
nebioentrhesmaefitneerdw,aradnsdshpeetrsf-enonnt toed thaelmcoosntveennttboef
sheß er was
esw
itniesak,of whereth a
establishment until the moment when the abbess Kulesza,
having become infirm, Makrena took her charge tor three
years, and succeeded her as abbess at her death hi 1823. In
her quality of abbess,
electionsdestroyed
one
abbesses cf Wilna and
by one the allegations of the additional note, and we deliver
the new errors with which- it is filled, as its most cruel con-
demnation, to the indignation and contempt of all upright
eperze.sen nt.e at
htahvee
d estr
and impartial minds.—Rome, April, 1846."`

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF CAPTAIN DUFF, RM.— I
The painful duty has devolved upon us of recording the
death of Captain Duff, Resident Magistrate of Roscommon,
which took place on Saturday last, the 2d instant, under the
following melancholy circumstances :—He was proceeding
with some friends through the lawn of Hermitage, in the
county of Longford, lately the residence of .his deceased
brother, George Duff, Esq., when he received a kick on the
right side from a horse, led by one of the party, whichcaused
instant death. What renders the circumstance peculiarly
distressing is the fact, that he had gone there from Roscom-
mon, for the purpose of arranging the affairs of his only
brother, above alluded to, whose death took place only five
weeks since.--Dublin Evening Post.
THE CHOLERA.—In a late number we stated that the.
Asiatic cholera had spread through several of the provinces of Persia,'
and had given rise to great mortality in some of the principal towns.
It is reported to have extended from Bokhara across the Persian'
frontier to Herat and Meshid, thence south of the Caspian to Tehe-
ran, and still further south to Ispalian. Recent accounts from Odessa
state that it has crossed the Russian boundary, and has appeared at
Tiflis, taking a course northward between the Caspian and Black
Seas while, according to the latest intelligeuce from Riga, it has
broken out at Orenburg in the I.Trallan raining district, crossed the
'olga, and appeared on the Europeans side at Kasen, about 12,000
mites from St. Petersburgh. If these accounts are to be tru,ted, the
disease has taken a somewhat irregular course, in a direction west by
north; and it does not appear to have followed the banks of great
w ietzt,:ari:Lirtihtintat-nntidprir
rivers as in the former irruption of 1828-30. 'the disease which
rltacrlei.ed:England in 1831, prevailed in Pers'a for seven years, from
1823 to 130. It app. ared at Orenburg for the first time iu 1823; and
'was confined to thla quarter for a period of five years. It reappeared
at Orenburg in 1829, and Its prevalence and fatality in this province
ta-fozutt laaul Aux the- 26th
of October of that year. Alt,TifthAavhere it is again reported to have
of one-tenth
dhpi.aorrwtngoe
were
eth attacked Inhabitants
died.
broken out, the mortality from the former epidemic was so grel,
that three-fourths of those who were attacked perished. We shall
take care to report any further information whit% may TOrtoll us
respecting the progress of the maiacty.—lfodicol Gate*.