The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-02 00:00:00

_yVEDNESDAY

toted the ward, or, with her assent, the ward was placed
'44,:ihat establishment. Had he anything before him to show
11,reet that was an improper establishment ? Certainly not a
'Word. From having gene that circuit, the name of the
convent had frequently been mentioned in his hearing, and
he had always heard a very high character of it. There was
eothing to show that the place was improper. Some circum-
stances had. been adverted to -namely, that the ward had
been found becore 1843 not in that state and condition, as to
her person and clothes which he could expect. He could
not enter into that on the present occasion, because although
that might have been proper for discussion in 1843, and was
disposed of, yet; as no order nor any change was made, he
must suppose it WV not borne out. With that exception, how-
ever, k.e did not find any remark made in any degree detract-
ing from this convent being a proper piece for the education
of Catholic young ladies as well as others. Well, the lady was
placed there. Now, a remark was made with regard to the
little attention she had received. He was not in a condition
precisely to measure that. Nothing was of more import-
ance, he apprehended, than to do that which Lord Cotten-
ham was most eminently anxious in observing-to see that
the charge relied on was always brought forward in the b 11
or petition. No man ever paid more attention to see that a
person was not taken by surprise by the case being set forth
on the record; and he agreed in that strict rule of justice.
It must be remembered, therefore. What did this petition
challenge—on whom did it call for explanation? Much must
occurr in the discussion of a set of affidavits, out of which
observations might be made, but he could net agree that an
advocate was not to look through the record which purported
to contain the charge, but was to look to the affidavits to
see out of what line some charge might be extracted. He
said that an advocate could not successfully do that; he
would always be taken by surprise; and he would say that
he should look in a different way for answers given by a series
of affidavits, and to particular parts of them, from what Le
should regard as the main subject of the charge on the re-
cord. He must, therefore, look to what it was the parties had
been brought into that court to answer. Now, the affidavits
would be very loose and unsatisfactory in one view, which in
another might be deemed reasonable. If the petition had
charged Lord and Lady Shrewsbury with having only once
been to f Taunton: themselves, and had forborne inquiry,
and that Dr. Doyle had made no inquiry from 1810 to 1850, he
should have expected an explicit answer ; but when there was
no such complaint made, then he should look to see if there
was any suggestion in the affidavit, and how far the general
suggestion was met by the general answer. He found in two
affidavits, at least, it was stated that Lord and Lady Shrews-
bury paid occasional visits, but it was not said how often ;
but those who made the affidavits were not called upon to
state how often. The general effect of the affidavit was,
that the ward was visited occasionally. Now, he must con-
fess, without anything to impeach the character of Lady
Shrewsbury, he should be very much inclined to suspect that
she was perfectly competent to form an opinion of the lady
with whom it was proper to place this young lady; and, be-
fore he censured or judicially acted in a manner to import
censure, he should desire to know every particular of
the matter for which that censure was to be given.
He said the same of Lady Shrewsbury that he should say
of any lady of education and in high station, in the absence
of evidence to the contrary, that she was perfectly compe-
tent to undertake the duty which Lady Shrewsbury had
undertaken in this case. He could not say at once,
without knowing more, whether Lady Shrewsbury was in
communication with the Lady Abbess or with the ladies in-
structing in the convent,—that Lady Shrewsbury would be
unfit for the care or management of this young lady. Now,
all that was to bring the case up to 1850, and he was to use
that to . appreciate the conduct of the parties towards the
ward up to that time. In 1850 the young lady was taken
away, and having passed the time apparently without ex-
ception through the summer and autumn of last year, she
was then placed again in the convent. And now came the
material part of the case, which was certainly a part that
did nit stand in a satisfactory position. The lady entered
the convent. She remained there until Mr. Berkeley made
the application for a habeas corpus, or for an order to change
the residence of the lady. He must say that, looking to
that order of 1843, which committed the ward
underwar h
dto
the
care and management of Lady Shrewsbury,
superintendence and subject to the control of her guardian,
he thought, when Lord and Lady Shrewsbury found it ne-
cessary for their arrangements to go abroad, there ought
to have been some application to the Court for
some alteration in that order. The situation of
the ward being so substantially altered, she having
ceased to be a pupil, having been introduced into the world,
and having taken up a position different from that she held
before, still, if Lord and Lady Shrewsbury had remained
here, and had exercised their superintendence, all might
have been well—the necessity for care continuing, and Lord
and Lady Shrewsbury continuing equally competent to
render it. But when they left, and the young lady lost that
care, and it was uncertain how long they would be absent—
though it rather appeared there was some expectation of
their return during the present year he thought there
should have been an application to the Court. There was
none. There was one circumstance which it would be unfair
not to advert to, namely, that the proposed marriage having
continued to be in agitation up to almost the moment of
Lord Shrewsbury's leaving England-only a few days before
he received the letter from Lord Shrewsbury to which he
had referred—there might have been difficulty in making an
immediate arrangement for the reception of the young lady
under proper circumstances; but there was no difficulty an
coming to the Court to make a propsal for an arrangement.
That, however, was not done, and there he thought was
the first palpable omission on the part of Dr. Doyle.
When the young lady lost the assistance of Lord and
Lady Shrewsbury it became him to be more diligent, as
he was the person to whom the Court must look. This young
lady was placed in the convent. Undoubtedly, after what
had occurred. it would have been more desirable to have had
a distinct statement of the circumstances under which she
was so placed there. The case was very peculiar. It com-
menced at that period with an application for the young lady
to be received as a boarder, and, according to the affidavit of
the Lady A bbess, Dr. Winter, through whom the application
was made, was told that, by the rules of the convent, ladies
could not be received except as postulants, and with a view
of their devoting themselves to a religious life, unless they
afterwards changed their minds. Dr. Winter was referred to
Dr. Hendren, but what was brought forward in his affidavit?
He found that Dr. Hendren did not deal with it as an ap-
plication of a young lady to be received as a boarder at all.
He could not collect from any part of Dr. Hendren's state-
ment that it ever was suggested to him that the young lady
was to be received as a boarder. He said the application
made to him was, that she should be received as a postulant.
He said, " I objected to that ; I did not wish for that ; I did
not think she was qualified for that ;" - for what? to
be received as a postulant—" but I said, if the nuns
and Lady Abbess thought fit to receive her, I would not ob-
ject," and accordingly she was so received. Now, hero was a
sad blank. There was an application for the young lady to
be received as a boarder ; it was referred to the ecclesiastical
superior for his consent to dispense with the old established
rule of the convent which did not admit of the reception of
boarders ; but that gentleman considered it an application to
him in which he was only to see whether, under all the cir-
cumstances, it was proper that the'lady should be received
as a postulant, and she was so received. Now that did
not put the case in a satisfactory position. The Lady Ab-
bess, in her affidavit, said the application was for the young
lady to be received as a boarder, and that she informed Dr.
Winter of the rule of the convent which prohibited it. He
(the Lord Chancellor) was not acquainted in particular with
the degree of authority and control which an ecclesiastical
superior exercised over a convent, but if it were such as
made it necessary for an application to be made to him for
leave to receive a ward either as a postulant or boarder, be
could not see how the Lady Abbess could receive her into
the convent without some more distinct authority
than that which she appeared to have received. But he
could not help retaining the impression that the Lady Abbess
must have much better means of informing the Court how
she came to receive, contrary to the rules of the convent, a
young lady as boarder, The Lady Abbess stated she had an
impression that Dr. Hendren had given his consent as far as
she was concerned ; but was it by letter, was it through Dr.
\V inter, or was it by personal communication ? That was
a blank not satisfactory. When he came to Dr. Hendren
again he was at a loss to account for a gentleman in a situa-
tion entitling him to credit, not likely to be doubted in the
absence of very strong grounds, stating that the ward
wrote a strong supplicatory letter, not to be received as a
boarder, but as a postulant, and that he unwillingly assented
and she was so received. How wus he to reconcile that
with the other part of the case? What then did it mean?
Dr. Doyle was absent at that time; he did not know what
was going on ; he returned. He was a gentleman of emi-
nence and character, and, as had been truly stated, must
be supposed to know the rules of the convent, and there-
fore that this yong lady,if received as a boarder, must have
been received under some dispensation for a departure
from the ordinary rules. He thought he had a right to
expect that that gentleman, as a guardian having
the care of a ward, looking at the very serious matter
of a young lady of her age being placed in a position
in which her steps and conduct would colour her
future life, and determine its nature and course at the most
important period of it, should have possessed himself of some
information as to the circumstances under which this young
lady was received into the convent. Dr. Doyle said that
Lady Shrewsbury informed hint that she had been received
as a boarder. He did not doubt one word of that statement,
and he had less reason for doubting it as such was the com-
munication by Lady Shrewsbury to him (the Lord Chan-
cellor). He had heard of ladies being boarders at convents,
and of the children of distinguished families of the Catholic
religion being placed there in the occasional absence of their
parents as the safest and most respectable asylum ; but, his
attention having been called to this matter, he knew not
under what order this young lady was placed in the convent,
or what were the regulations of the convent except in the
most loose and general way. But Dr. Doyle did.' Lady
Shrewsbury had told him that her niece was gone as a
boarder while she was away. Little more than a sentence
passed ; but it became Dr. Doyle to do more. When he
(the Lord Chancellor) found that during the:period:laetween
1843 and 1850 the young lady had thought something about
being a nun—when he found that, on the 13th of March,
Dr, Doyle was aware that, from circumstances that had
occurred, the idea of her becoming a nun was passing
through her mind, and that, above all, it had passed through
her mind, and that she was wavering at that moment, con-
sidering that she was a young lady between 18 and 19,
wavering under spiritual influence, or impressions on her own
mind as to so decided a step, a lady with regard to whom the
world contained so much attraction, such powerful means of
influence, - considering that the views she had received front
the society in which she had been educated were overcome
and she was wavering, he thought the Court had a right to
expect to see that person immediately withdrawn from that
place. He thought, under those circumstance', that she
could not safely remain there, and that Dr. Doyle ought to
have given him more information when first he heard of that
impression passing through her mind. It appeared that,
shortly before that, for some reason not explained, Mr
Berkeley had gone to the convent, and that had passed be-
tween him and the young lady and the Lady Abbess which
led to the application on his part. Without imputing any in-
tention to either par y to deceive, quite enough passed on that
occasion to lead Mr. Berkeley to suppose that the lady was
in the convent as a postulant, and he thought Mr. Berkeley
performed a worthy service in the course he had taken.
When he looke I to what the Lady Abbess said, and what
Mr. Berkeley 'said, as to what passed at the convent, and com-
pared the one statement with the other, he thought Mr.
Berkeley was led to the conclusion that the young lady was
there as a postulant, and he did not think it was an un-
reasonable conclusion. How did it appear she was there?
She was not there as an ordinary or usual postulant, but she
was there nominally as a postulant. But she was never
there believi. g herself to be an ordinary postulant. Postu-
lants had to undergo certain religious ceremonies in order
to prepare br taking the veil ; they were required to
change their dress and assume some dress conformable to
the particular order of the particular convent, and it was
said that this young lady was received not as a postulant
but as a boarder, and that she never underwent the religious
ceremonies and never changed her dress. Now, in that
state of things, what was the conclusion? That at which he
bad arrived was this : that this young lady was received
there as a boarder, but that she was received there contrary
to the rules of the convent, and was passed off as b, postu-
lant. He should have been better pleased if the Lady
Abbess had made a statement calculated to prevent any
wrong conclusion. Whether she was apprehensive of incur-
ring any ecclesiastical censure, and therefore shrouded her
statement in ambiguous language, leaving it to be taken one