The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1870.

against the proposed inspection. As the Roman
Church ought not to have peculiar privileges, so it
ought not to suffer under peculiar disabilities. In
the next place, we believe that inspection would be
highly inexpedient. There are two reasons for as-
sinning this. The one is that monasteries, as distinct
from convents, are illegal institutions, are actually
forbidden by Act of Parliament, and that for
Parliament to recognise them by appointing in-
spectors would be to stultify its own enact-
ment. Perhaps Mr. Newdegate would be prepared
to enforce this Act ; but we warn him that the same
hatred of intoleranc3 which this country shows at all
times when not under the influence of a panic, and
which has rendered the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill a
dead letter, would never suffer the revival of the Act
against monasteries. Moreover, as there cannot be
a different laiv on the subject for different parts of
the kingdom, inspection or prohibition—whichever
be the alternative selected—must, if adopted at all,
be applied to Ireland as well as to England.
It is simply no argument to say that Ireland
is a Roman Catholic country and must therefore
be treated differently from England. The argument
is rather the other way; in proportion as the mis-
chief is more prevalent (and monastic institutions are
ex hypothe3i mischievous) is there greater need of
correction, and in Ireland, above all parts of ..the
kingdom, should' inspection be enforced. Is Mr.
Newdegate prepared to carry out his principle to
this, its legitimate extent? Ireland is estranged, and
we are attempting to win it to loyalty and affec-
tion by special legislation. What would
the Irish people say to us if we showed
our goodwill by inflicting upon them that
which they would consider an intolerable insult?
If Irish monasteries and nunneries are to be in-
spected, we may as well have spared ourselves the
sacrifice of the Irish Established Church, and might
even now escape from the labour of passing the Irish
Land Bill, for all such measures would be utterly
without result. The message of peace would be con-
tumeliously rejected if accompanied by such an out-
rage as this.
lVhy should monastic institutions be inspected ?
They are voluntary associations—families, in fact,
as much entitled to be considered private as any
ordinary houSehold. The argument used by Lord
Elcho—one quite worthy of him who used it—that $
these institutions have nothing to hide they ought to
court instead of resisting Government inspection,
will have force only when private families consent to
be inspected. Moreover, inspection would bo useless.
The stories of physical coercion we do not believe.
We hold that they are the mere fables of Protestant
tradition—" a fond thing vainly invented." Were
it otherwise we should not find these institu-
tions defended by members of the British Par-
liament who have sisters or daughters in nunneries.
On the contrary, they would be the first to demand
inspection. As it is, they resist it as a gross insult
to their relatives, and it is Protestants like Mr. New-
degate and Mr. Murphy who agitate the matter.
Even if moral coercion does exist, inspection would
not put an end to it. If a woman feels bound by the
uruers or ner superior or of her spiritual director, ii
she surrenders her will to abbess or to priest,
all the inspectors in the world would not
bo able to liberate her. She entered the
convent voluntarily; if she remains there involun-
tarily, there is no pressure put upon the will which
a State functionary could remove. There is no remedy
but to apply for a dispensation from her vows. It may
allay Mr. Newdegate's apprehensions to know that
when it is clearly shewn that the application is well
founded, and does not arise from transient pique, the
dispensation is granted. It might be better that
there should be no vows, and that the obligations
should not be more binding than they are in some
conventual institutions, such as the Beguinago at
Ghent. But it is quit.) certain that where religious
poisons have taken vows, they will not think that:
any of her Majesty's inspectors of convents has the
power to release them.

Cr-77
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(tint 0111111 M

_HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, April 19.
The Queen, accompanied by her Royal High
ness the Princess of Wales, drove out this morn

mg.
The other members of the Royal Family also
went out.

THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES

AT SOUTHAMPTON.

Their Royal Highnesses arrived'bere this morning
in the Queen's yacht Alberta, from Osborn, and
were received with great enthusiasm. Royal salutes
were fired, the Mayor attended, and ships dressed in
honour of Vie occasion.

Their Royal highnesses left for London at
11.45 a.m.

Mr. Gladstone has been invited to preside at the
annual dinner of the Cobden Club, which will take
pace, as usual, towards the close of the session, and
the committee are hopeful that ho will accept the in-

vitation.
Lady Herbert of Lea, accompanied by Lady Mary
Herbert and hor son, the Hon. William Reginald Herbert,
have returned to Wilton House, near Salisbury, from
Lisbon.

The death is announced this morning of Lady
Stewart, wife of Sir Houston Stewart, G.C.B.
the marriage of Lady Harriet Gordon to Mr.
Lindsay is fixed for the 7th of May, at St. James's Church,
Piccadilly.
A marriage is about to take place between the
Hon. Frederick Banbury-Tracy and Miss Winnington,
daughte" of Sir Thomas and Lady Winnington.
Lord Kildare is about to be created Baron Kildare
in the United Kingdom.
Tbe Hon. Julian Fane died yesterday morning, in
Portman• square. He was 42 years of ago. The deceased
gentleman was the son of the eleventh Earl of Westmorland.
There is now reason to hope that Colonel Akroyd,
M.P., will recover from his severe injuries.
General Nissage Saget has been elected President
of the republic of Hayti for the period of four years.
Mr. James Bryce will succeed the Queen's Advo-
cate, who has resigned the Chair of Civil Law at Oxford.
It is stated that Major Knox will contest Mallow
again, .and will be opposed by Mr. Waters, Q.C., who retired
at the last election in favour of Mr. Munster.
Captain H. Barrow telegraphed from Penzance "as
follows :—" The mid-channel cable is now laid to the
telegraph station vessel Brisk, and signals are perfect."
A number of gentlemen who have served with
Admiral Sir Henry Keppel purpose entertaining him
at a public dinner at Portsmouth on Thursday, the
28th instant, on the occasion of the paying off of the
Rodney.
A concession for telegraph cables between Ro and
Para and Rio Grande do Sul, touching in all the mari-
time provinces, has been granted to Sir Charles Bright
and others.
The Palermo journals state that the cartridges
recently seized in that city, at San Gregorio, wero to the
number of 10,000; they had apparently been made about
three years. The material found was sufficient to fabricate
20,000 more. •
It is understood that the sentence passed on James
Rutterford,, convicted at the Suffolk assizes of the murder of
John Hight, at Eriswel', Suffolk, has been commuted to penal
servitude for life. Since his conviction Rutterford Las con-
ducted himself with propriety. He will be removed shortly
from Bury St. Edmunds.
The alligator, said to have been caught in the
Thames, turns out to bo a large lizard, which escaped from
the premises of Mr. Jamrack, a naturalist, in Rateliff-high-
way, and found its way into the London Docks, only about
300 yards off, and thence through some of the locks into
the liver.
Yesterday afternoon, at three o'clock, as one of
the Chelsea steamboats neared Lambeth Pier, a pleasure
boat was seen foul of a tier of barges moored in the stream.
A women was thrown late the water, and a man
jumped in after her and tried to rescue her. She sank,
however, and the mau was rescued in an exhausted
state.

The Buenos Ayres advices state that, owing to
the inunda,iou• of a large bonded warehouse, moat of the
Euglish imp:irting houses had had valuable merchaudise
damaged. The CastJrn-house authorities allowed the
goods to be at once removed without payment of duties, the
appmisemeut of the dimaged goods to be made at the dif-
fereut warehouses, or upon the auctioneer's bill of sale.

A PROTESTANT ARCHDEACON FOR
REPEAL.

Archdeacon Goold, a Protestant clergyman, has openly
joined the new "repeal" ranks. lle writes to a Dublin
paper thus :—" Sir,—As I believe I was among the
first, if not the very first Protestant clergyman publicly
to proclaim my conviction that repeal of the Union
was the only measure calculated to rescue Irishmen from
the bondage of an Anglo-Papal despotism as degrading to
Irish nationality as it is fatal to Irish morality, permit
me through your columns to share some portion of the
obloquy incurred by the eloquent Mr. McCutchan in
his late able and truthful lecture on " Grattan and his
Times." lam glad, however; to find that his national
utterances met a ready and heartfelt response from many
Protestants in the body of the ball. In endorsing his se,n-
-timents,l believe I am but furthering the best interests of
my native land, and striking a blow, however feeble, for
the emancipation of honest Irishmen of every class and
creed from the galling thraldom of sham piety, mock
p_ttriotism, and selfish place hunting.

BROA.DHEAD WORSHIP AT SHEFFIELD.

A drama called " The Union Wheel " was produced
at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield, on Saturday. The
Sheffield Independent says :—" The play is one which deals
with trades unionism, and introduces rattening,
a blow up, and putting powder in a grinder's
trough. The propriety of producing such a play
as this in Sheffield of all other plekts may
possibly be questioned. One would almost think we had
had enough of this kind of thing in reality without having
it produced upon the stage ; but " The Union Wheel "
possesses this advantage over real life, that it brings the
rattener and blower-up to speedy justice, and if it be
the means of teaching all who feel inclined to do the
same kind of work that their fate will be similar, it will
do a greater omount of good than the author in his
most sanguine moments could have anticipated. One of
the most striking characters in the play is that of Mr.
William Bromley, secretary of the sawgrinders' union ;
and it is at once easy to see that it is intended to represent a
former secretary of that union. The get up' of Mr. Alex-
ander, who represents the character, is really admirable,
and so well does he imitate the twinkling of the eye-glass, the
frequent use of the silk pocket handkerchief, and the style
of speaking with which at one time those who attended
trades union meetings were so familiar, that it seems almost
difficult to believe, the journey to America having signally
failed, that the notorious ex-secretary of the Grinders' Union
had not turned his attention to the stage. A sad feature in
connection with the representationof the play on Saturday
night—and we suppose it will be the same at every suc-
ceeding representation—was that the sentiments which
the author put into the mouth of Bromley as to the inte-
rests of the union being above all considerations were
loudly cheered by the occupants of the gallery, whilst
sentiments which went to the contrary effect met with
only a very partial response."

A PROTESTANT PICTURE OF CONVENT

LIFE.

One who describes himself as " A Scotsman and a good
Protestant" writes to the North British Daily Mail to bear
testimony to the real happiness and contentment of the
nuns he frequently saw at the Convent of the Sacred Heart
in the vicinity of London. A few years ago, he says, I was on
very friendly terms with a Brazilian Nobleman,then resident
in London, whose two daughters, with those of a South
American gentleman, were in the above institution. My
first visit was unexpected, on account of the baron having
to leave suddenly on important business for the Continent,
avid I was despatched to enquire the young ladies to the
city to receive the paternal adieux. An entire
stranger, I arrived at the convent at a late
hour-9 p.m.—and on ringing the bell the door
was opened on the chain by a nun in the usual dress.
Presently the Lady Superior entered the drawing-room.
My letter delivered and read, the lady, with the most
homely and charming frankness, told me that the young
ladies' boxes were being packed with dresses, &c., and that
my young charges would be with me shortly. In about
20 minutes the young ladies entered, accompanied by at least
a dozen other nuns. The only doubt I had at the time of
being under restraint was that they spoke in whispers.
On taking my leave of the Lady Superior, and walking
up the long corridor, with my. companions in the van,
I felt a gentle poke in my ribs, and turning round I
looked on the most beautiful and angelic face I ever
beheld. With a sweet and pleasant smile this
young French lady said, "Dis is de keys of
de ladies' boxes." At the portals, it was only
a scene of real affection and love—kissing and
good wishes being freely interchanged among a sisterhood
of young persons hailing from almost "all kindreds,
nations, tongues, and powers," whose home, I think, was
happy, and whose only regret was the temporary depar-
ture of the ladies I was to accompany. I was frequently
afterwards at the convent, when any friends or acquaint-
ances were invariably readily admitted.