The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-24 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 24,

THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

The Roy& Corntniz;,ion have io,?..ueft the f,illowing
programme of the twanner in which the state opehing
by her Alaji-sty, already announced to the public, is
to be conducted : -
,•ExillniTiox OF 1851.

" Her Majesty having signified her royal plessure
that arrangements t,houtei be made to enable her Majesty
to gratify a wish very generally expressed on the part of
the pu,dic to be present at k ceremony by which her Ma-
j. sty should open the Exhibition of the Works of In-
custry of all Nations on the Ist of May, her Majesty's
Commissioners hereby give notice that the programme
of this ceremony, and the regulations under which the
holders of season tickets will be admitted, are as
follow:

" Exhibitors' attendants who have been sanctioned by
the Executive Committee will be admitted between the
hours of eight and nine o'clock at doors specified on
their cards, and will immediately take their places
by the counters or objects exhibited by their employers.
" Holders of season tickets will be admitted at all
doors on the east, south, and west of the building between
The hours of nine and half. past eleven o'clock, and will
be allowed to take their places, subject to police regu-
latkni, in the lower part of the building and in the
galleries, except the parts railed off in the nave and
transept: . . . .

" A platform will be raised to the north of the centre
of the transept, on which a chair of State will be placed.
" Her Majesty's Cocernizsioners will assemble at half.
past Eleven o'cleck in the transept, opposite the plat-
form, together with their Executive Committee and the
For eignActing Commissioners, in full dress, or in plain
evening dress.
" His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, her Ma-
jesty's Ministers, the great Officers of State, and the
foreign Ambassadors and Ministers, will take their
places on the platform to the right and left of the chair
of State, in full dress, also at half-past eleven o'clock.
" Her Majesty, proceeding in State, with the Royal
Family, foreign guests, &c., and her and their suites
from Buckingham Palace, up Constitution-hill, and
down Rotten-row, will enter the Exhibition building by
the north entrance precisely at twelve o'clock. She;will
ascend the platform and take her seat in the chair of
State.

" On ber Majesty's arrival a choir will sing' God
Save the Queen.
" On the Queen taking her seat his Royal Highness
Prince Albert will join the Royal Commissioners, and
when the music has ceased proceed at their head to the
platform, and read to her Majesty a short report of the
proceedings of the Commission up to that time, which
he will then deliver to her Majesty, together with the
catalogue of the articles exhibited. Her Majesty will
return a gracious answer, handed to her by the Secre-
tary of State; after whichl his Royal Highness Prince
Albert will take his place again by the side of her
Majesty.
The Doyen of the Corps Diplomatique will read an
address to her Majesty on behalf of the foreign nations
who have contributed to the Exhibition, to which her
Majesty will return a gracious answer.
'• His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury will then
say a prayer, invoking God's blessing upon the under-
taking, followed by a short anthem sung by the choir.
"A Royal procession will then be formed, preceded by
the Commissioners, which will turn to the right, move
to the west end of the nave by its north side, return to
the east end of the nave by its south side, including the
south end of the transept, and come back to the centre
along the north side of the nave; thus enabling all those
present, who will be expected to keep the places which
have been assigned to them, to see her Majesty and the
precession.
" During the procession the organs appointed will play
marches, takiiw the music up at the Queen's approach.
" On her Majesty's return to the platform the Queen
will declare 'the Exhibition opened;' which will be an-
nounced to the public by a flourish of trumpets and the
firing of a Royal salute on the north of the Serpentine;
whereupon the barriers, which had kept the nave clear,
will he thrown open, and the public will be allowed to
circulate.

" Her Majesty will then return to Buckingham Palace
by the route by which she came.
"All the doors, which will have been closed at half-
past eleven o'clock, will, upon her Majesty's departure,
be opened again.
" By order of her Majesty's Commissioners,
" EDGAR A. BoWRING,. Acting Secretary.
. _ _

" Exhibition Builoing, Hyde-park, April 22." -
In making this announcement the occasion seems an
appropriate one for directing attention to the neglected
state of Hy de-pat kin the immediate neighbourhood of
the Crystal Palace. From Albert-gate to the eastern
end of the building there is as remarkable a collection of
nuisances on either aide of the carriage way as that our
correspondent recently discovered in his ramble through
the streets of Copenhagen—on one side runs a deep open
ditch, filled with mud and filth, and ready, at the slight-
est false step to ingulph the unwary pedestrian; while a
clumsy wooden railing, rotted by exposure to the wea-
ther, innocent of paint for many a lung year, covered
with a green coating of mould, and hardly able to stand
from decay, is all that has been deemed requisite to con-
fine within proper limits the immense passenger traffic
which is expected to pour along this approach. This
railing seems to have been designed from the sheep
hurdles used in the pasturage of the park, and which
are like nothing of the kind used in any other part of
England. The footways of the road, besides the dangers
from open ditches which they present, are in a most
disgraceful state of disrepair. Atter ye u pass Mr. Cu-
bitt's house—popularly called " Gibraltar," from the
belief that it can't be taken—you find on your left hand,
as you approach the Crystal Palace, a succession of ob-
jects which will not a little surprise foreigners accus-
tomed to well-arranged and neatly-kept parks. We say
nothing of the back view of Knightsbridge architecture,
hardly softened down by distance; nor do we speak of
a nearer view of inclosed areas, adorned with meat safes,
round which cats crawl stealthily on the copings. Even
the dismal facing of dead brick wall may be forgiven,
but there is no excuse for hoardings of timber so old and
rotten that they are of themselves fallicg to pieces; fur
corners and angles which outrage decency • for strips of
ground belonging to the park filled with all kinds of filth
and rubbish, among which dirty bits of newspaper, stale
orange peel, bones, rags, broken tiles, and other rubbish
are prominently visible; neither is it at all agreeable,
however fond one may be of horses, to nose all the
concentrated ammonia from the Knightsbridge barracks.
We have drawn no exaggerated picture of the state
of the park from Albert-gate to the east entrance of
the building. There is still time, if the Commis-
sioners of Woods and Forests choose to exert them-
selves a little, to put this approach in something
like decent order. It would cost a little money; but the
public would forgive the extravagance, and even give the
Commissioners credit for a share of that virtue which
the old say ing places second in the rank of moralities.
We fear, however, that they are too deliberative a body
to save their reputation now. They took four or five
months before they plucked up courage enough to allow
the axe to be laid to the root of Colonel Sibthorp's tree.
Two months more elapsed before, yielding to long con-
tinued entreaties, they consented to the telling of four
decayed pieces of timber that blocked up one end of the
transept. Even now their constitutional regard for the
Royal woods is about to receive another severe shock.
Her Majesty's determination to enter the building in
State at the north side of the transept renders it neces-
sary to clear away some stumps that would otherwise ob-
struct the progress of the State procession. Under such
circumstances, and having failed in their comfortable at-
tempt to get the Royal Commission to do their work for
them, it is more than probable that the ditches by the
wayside will still remain open—the footpaths impracti-
cable except in double-soled boots—the railings as mouldy
with damp as ever, and, for the special amusement of our
quick-witted visitors, glimpses afforded into our Crown
land management which must make us more and more
ashamed of it.—Times.

EXECUTION OF THE NEMPNETT
MURDERERS.
TAUNTON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23.—The execution
of John Wiles and John Smith, convicted at the last
assizes of the murder of an aged man named Wilkins, a
shopkeeper at Nempnett, under circumstances of great
atrocity, and in which, it will be remembered, his aged
wite was left for dead by the murderers, but fortunately
recovered so as to be the means of bringing them to
justice, took place this morning at nine o'clock, at the
north corner of the gaol. The Execution was originally
fixed for eleven o'clock, but out of deference to the
wishes of the inhabitants of Taunton, who represented
the injury it would be to the busihess of the town, the
hour was changed to nine o'clock.
From the moment of their conviction the culprits
have manifested a becoming manner, and listened
patiently to the exhortations of the chaplain, the Rev.
Mr. Gatten, who was unremitting in his exertions, and
who has declared that he believed their repentance
to be sincere. At the time of the trial there appeared
to be some doubt as to which of the two was the actual
murderer, but since their condemnation they both
freely confessed that they each participated in the
crime, and were both equally guilty, although they stated
that they had no intention of perpetrating a murder when
they went into the shop. Wiles was about 56 years
of age, a blacksmith by trade, and, at one period of his
life, in the service of the late Richard Hart Davis, M.P.,
father of the present Chairman of the Board of Excise.
Smith was a much younger man, and evidently a person
of respectable connexions; indeed, be stated freely that
his name was nut Smith, but objected to communicate to
any person who be really was, urging as his reason that
he did not wish his relations, who were most respectable,
to be marked out to the world as persons related to a
man who had suffered death as a murderer. At five
o'clock this morning the prisoners arose, and, after being
engaged in prayer, partook of some tea and bread and
butter, and at eight o'clock they were taken to the
chapel, where Divine service was performed, and the sa-
crament administered to them. At nine o'clock the
prison hell began to toll, and the whole of the prisoners
in the gaol, who were under sentence of transportation,
or who had been convicted of felony, were mustered in
the yard to witness the execution. The culprits having
been pinioned by Calcratt, the mournful procession
commenced, and in a few minutes, having walked firmly
up the stairs of the gaol, they appeared upon the plat-
form; they then ascended the ladder with the same firm
step, and having prayed with the chaplain for several
minutes, and shaken hands with the reverend gentleman,
the bolt was drawn, and they were launched into eternity.
death Smith
appeared
p p struggledeer e
dto b
fuer
instantaneous. a
After but
hangingwith Wiles
itthe
the
usual time, the bodies were cut down and immediately
i
buried in their clothes as they were, n the yard of the
gaol. In a quarter of an hour afterwards the drop was
removed.

Simons, Esq., and Henry
GRAY'S INN, APRIL, 23.—At a Pension of the
Honourable Soci.ty of Gray's Inn, holden this (by, William
Collingwood Selby, Esq., were
called to the degree of hamster-at-law.

LITERATURE.

THE FaIIALE JESUIT; or, The Spy in the

Family.
This is one of the most interesting and extraordi-
nary narratives ever presented to tine public, and is
doubly interesting at the present time, when the in-
trigues of that most truth despising order, the,Jesuists,
are at length beginning to attract attention. The
author of this work, in his preface, says—
" The startling assertion that truth is stranger than
fiction' has seldom been more fully verified than in the
details of this volume. The heroine whose extraordinary
scheme of deception is here recorded, introduced herself
to the Rev, as an orphan, with no near relatives
but a Jesuit uncle and an aunt, also a' religeuse.' She
stated that she had been en inmate of various convents
in connexion with the 'Faithful Companions of Jesus'
for seventeen years. These she represented as an order
of Female Jesuits. She described herself as having been
for two jeers a postulant in their Order, and as about to
be removed to Paris, there to take upon her vows from
which there could be no eser.pe.
Having long been con-
vinced of the errors of the system, and having ueciden-
tally heard Mr. name and character, she had
con.rived to 1,-;,,t to him in order to throw herself on his
kindness fir inlviec. A% will sulpequently appear, .cle
was received into his family, and thence obtained a situa-
tion as a governess. She returned to Mr.
house on account of supposed dangerous illness. and con-
tinued there till the discovery of her plots. She is still
at large, and has been seen in London. Who nand what
she is remain a mystery. Whether she is self-taught
and self-prompted in the art of deception, or whether the
almost supernatural ability she displays, has been cc-
quired in the school of the Jesuits, must be left for the
judgment ( f the reader to decide, and the publication of
this volume to elicit.

" The statements in the 'lntroduction' relating to the
laws and mechanism of the Community' which Marie
had quitted, and to her escape, were
furnished by herself. For these and for her Auto-
biography,' the writer cannot be answerable. All the
remainder of the book is strictly and literally true."
So startling are the events recorded in this work, that
we were at first almost inclined to doubt this last
assertion, that all the remainder of the book is strictly
and literally true ; but we have instituted inquiries
which leave no doubt upon our minds of the truth of
every assertion made by the Rev. S. L. That gentle-
man is an excellent and exemplary minister, of the
Gospel, whose name, if mentioned, would be to the
world sufficient guarantee of the truthfulness of every
word he asserts; indeed we regret that his kind-
heartedness, and his unwillingness to hurt the
feelings of the relations of the wicked im-
poster whose career of iniquity is recorded in this
volume, should have so tar prevailed as to
induce him to adopt the quasi incognito of initials.
The Rev. S. L. has no cause for concealment, for his
own straightforwardness and innate love of truth
enabled him to discover and expose one of the most cun-
ning schemes that it ever entered into the heart of
Jesuit to concoct, whilst, as regards the heroine, Marie
Lucille G., the duty he owes to the public de-
mands that her names and her aliases, so
far as he knows them, should be given
in full length, in order that the public may be placed
on their guard against the machinations of
an impostor, who, to the wickedness of an Eliza-
beth Canning, unites the blasphemous hypocrisy of a
Joanna Southcott, and the unabashable impudence of
a Princes Carraboo. Marie L. G. introduced herself,
as above stated, to the Rev. S. L. towards the close of
the year 1848, or the beginning of 1849.
She said that she was a postulant at the
Convent of 1., in the neighbourhood of Lon-
don, and that she had also been an inmate
of the convent of S. The sister of the Rev. S. L.
went down by the appointment of Marie to the gate
of the convent in a cab, and Marie, saying she had
effected her escape, jumped into it, and became domi-
ciled with the Rev. S. L. and his family. She related
to him her history, and stated that she had an uncle, the
Very Reverend Henry Constable Clifford, who was a
Jesuit, and who was stationed at Manotte, who was
very high in the Church of Rome, and with whom she
at once commenced a correspondence. She stated her
age to be 25, and her health seemed to be very deli-
cate. Soon after she came to reside with the Rev.
S. L. she commenced her autobiography, in which
she relates her experience of 17 years of convent life
in connexion with " the Faithful Companions of Jesus,"
and enlarges upon the reasons which induced her to
quit the Roman Catholic faith. The following is the
account given of Marie's manner of writing her auto-
biography, and we beg particular attention
to it, because, by collating it with some
subsequent passages of the narrative, we
may be enabled to offer at least some conjecture
as to the objects of those, for there were clearly
several parties concerned, who were engaged in this
nefarious transaction :

" Marie d.-tertnined upon preserving a record of the
principal events in her life, and in particular of her some-
what singular mental history. This was an undertaking
of no small difficulty, for having, as she said, been alto-
gether unused to English composition, except when
writing notes at the dictation of the Very Reverend
Mother, she knew neither how to form nor to arrange
her sentences. Her deficiency in habits of order and
method was another obstacle. Her recollections of the
past, as they came to mind, were recorded on sundry
scraps of paper of all sorts and sizes, in ink or in pencil,
crossed and interlined, as the convenience of the moment
dictated. When seated by Mrs. L-- to review her
daily or weekly task, it was often the business of nearly
half an hour to collect and arrange from desk, pocket,
and portfolio, the various parts; and when fairly stitched
together, to prevent the truant pieces from again wan-
dering, they presented an amusing variety of sizs and
quantity. It was a further exercise of patience to deci-
pher the half rubbed out pencil scrawl, or all but ille-
gible ink crossing; and then each sentence had to be
re-made, and put in its proper place. She frequently
declared that nothing but the hope of doing good would
induce her to persevere, and that as this was her first,
the public might be assured it would be her last, piece
of authorship. As she proceeded, however, the work of
composition became easier, and the latter half of the
narrative required very little correction. The introduc-
tory account of her escape was written for her by Mrs.
L—: all the incidents relating to the convent being sup-
plied by herself, and those which related to her arrival,
by her Protestant friends."
Shortly after the completion of this autobiography,
her friends procured for her the situation of a
governess in the family of Mr. and Mrs. S., but she
soon becomes ill, and under pretence of ill-health
endeavoured again to reinstate herself in the family
of the Rev. J. L., failing in which, she told a most
transparent falsehood, evidently for the purpose of
securing her dismissal and her consequent return to the
residence of the Rev. S. L. Once again located in
the hospitable mansion of the Reverend Gentleman,
she took care to have periodical returns of vomiting
and spitting blood, so as absolutely to preclude the
idea not only of removing her, but of harassing her
by any allusions to her adventures as a governess.
In the meantime the uncle, the Rev. Herbert C.
Clifford, entered into a correspondence with Mr. L.,
and in the course of it stated that Marie would be en-
titled to a large property in Staffordshire. In the course
of this correspondence he frequently expresses a de-
sire to have her original MS. of her autobiography,
of which it should be observed Mrs. L. had made a
fair copy. But it boots not to pursue the tale of in-
trigue and deceit, proceed we to the discovery. The ill-
ness of Marie was all sham ; she was in the habit of
applying leeches to her gums to produce the appear-
ance of bleeding at the mouth, and the bulk of the
fluid which she had appeared to have vomited up was
bullock's blood, purchased by her from a butcher, and
mixed with warm water ; her pulse she lowered by
taking doses of digitalis, and she never would sub-
mit to be examined by the stethoscope. The letters
she herself acknowledged were forgeries, but we had
better let the author himself relate the events of the
morning of June 18, 1850, the trial morning :
" Tuesday, June 18th, dawned in almost cloudless
beauty. Marie came down to breakfast, little thinking
of the dark cloud which was lowering over her, prepar-
ing in one short hour to burst upon her. She had ar-
ranged to walk across the Park to Mrs. y—'s and
Elizabeth was to accompany her. As soon as breakfast
was over, she ran up stairs to get ready. In a few
minutes more she would have been off. A knock was
heard at the door. Elizabeth raa up to her, Marie, a
gentleman wants to speak to you.
" She turned pale. ' Who is it?' she asked anxiously.
is only Mr. K—.'
" Marie seemed relieved, and went down to the draw-
ing-room.

According to pre-arrangement, while Mr. K-
engaged her in conversation, Mr. S--- and Mr. A'B--
arrived. Mr. L-- was watching for them, and he
opened the door before they knocked. Toey ascended
the staircase as noiselessly as possible, and opened the
drawing-room door. There they stood! Mr. S-- in
whose family she had lived, Mr. L-- whose kindness
she had abu. oil, Mr. A'l3-- with whose profession 1
character she was well acquainted, and Mr. K-- their
confidential friend. Why had they all assembled at
that hour to confront her ? She saw it at a glance. She
bent her head, and there she sat, calm, modest, self.
possessed, without any of the excitement £0 well feigned
in earlier days. She did not faint, she did not move.
In former days the slightest incident would throw her
into a state of excitement which alarmed her friends.
Now, when any one else would have been agitated, she
sat unmoved. If there was a struggle within, there was
no manifestation of it without. Her examiners betrayed
more emotion than herself.

"Two of the gentlemen placed their chairs between
Marie and the door, and they all seated themselves in
ailence.

" Mr. L-- spoke. He said he had invited these
friends to be present, while ho entered upon matters too
important for conference with her alone, and wishing
them also to hear any explanation which she might have
to

"lle then stlted that two facts had come to his know-
ledge. .11Pr previous acquaintance with the contents of
Capatin Kenyon's letter, and inquiries for it at the post-
office; and her correspondence with Mr. Viall, lull of
misstatements, which had come into his possession.
Can you,' he inquired, explain either of these?'
" Marie seemed about to maintain the veracity of her
statements to Mr. Viall, till assured by Mr. K-- that
the whole matter had been thoroughly investigated, and
that such asseverations were useless. She was silent.
" Mr. L---- repeated the question, whether she could
xplstin these circumstances.

"A scarcely nEdible no' dropped from her lips.
" It now becomes my painful duty,' said Mr. L---,
' to tell you that there is too much reason to tear that
you have been an impostor from first to last.'
" Marie raised her eyes, and r,it,hout manifesting the
slightest emotion, gently said, 'lt is too true, sir.'
The whole party looked at one another in amaze-
ment at her unparalleled self-control.
" Well, then,' said Mr. L--, it only remains for
yqu to tell us who you are, where you came from, and
what have been your motives for acting in so extraordi-
a way?'

" With great firmness Marie replied that there were
some circumstances connected with her early history
which she must decline to communicate. Indeed, she
would rather die than reveal the circumstances under
which she had left her family. Thus much she would
say, that she was a native of M--; that her father
was a surgeon; that he and her mother died when she
was young, leaving her to the care of an only brother:
he treated her unkindly, and she had long since left him.
For two years before coming to London she had had a
situation at
of two little girls. Their mother and father dying. they
wi,re sent to the care of their guardian. Being again
thrown upon the world, she had had recourse to the ex-
pedient of going into a convent. Growing tir,d of its
discipline, and having heard of Mr. L— in the north, as
man of benevolence and kin,lnes9, on coming to London,
she determined to find him out.

." Weil,' said Mr. L—, •if I wtr© to express what I
think of your conduct, it would only give you pain, and
under present circumstances do little good. I presume
that y ou have no uncle?'
fi 4 No:

" How were his Letters managed ?'
"' I wrote them all myself in your house, andibmd them
translated and rewritten by Mr. --, a teacher of
languages in

The teacher of languages was applied to, and the
following was his explanation:—
"' I have called on you,' said Mr. L— , 'in refer-
ence to some letters which have been sent to my house,
written by Miss G—, and translated here.'
" ' Oh, it is Mr. L— I suppose?'
... yes:

" Well, lam glad to see you. I was thinking of call-
ing upon you to know if you can tell me about Miss
Cliff.rd, as she has not been here for some time.'
It is a Miss G-, not a Miss Clifford,' said Mr.
L-.

" ' No, it was a Mrs. or Miss Clifford who came here,
and the letters were sent to Miss G--.'

" Mr. and Mrs. L- looked perplexed and puzzled.
" She was a short stout young lady,' said Mr.
and she came to me, and said she wanted some letters
translated for her niece, a Miss G-, at Mr.
C- terrace. She asked me if I was a Catholic. I
said, " if you come to me on business I will attend to
you, but if it is about religion, I have no time to talk on
that subject." She said it did not matter, only she
thought if I were a Catholic I could better enter into
the feelings with which she wrote these letters.'
_ _

":Mr. and Mrs.L—J--COuldis;ticlii;l:itOut. Here
was a new character appearing on the stage in the shape
of a Miss Clifford.

" Mr. -- proceeded, She told rue that her niece
had apostatized from the Catholic Church, and that she
had been so angry with her at first that she had declared
she would never write to ber again, but latterly she had
relented, sad wished to try to bring her back to the true
Church. her niece did not speak English, so she wished
the letters to be in French; besides which she should
save her word by our writing them.' He then ►produced
two packets, one of Marie's English originals, and the
other her orders to him to translate them. I did them
up,' he added, in case I might be out, as she said she
was going to call; and I wrote the account outside, 131
pages at Is. a page, 6/. 11s.'
" But these letters were from a gentleman, a priest,'
said Mr. and Mrs. L-; 'not from a young lady.'
" Mr.' was puzzled in his turn. He rang for his
French assistant, a tall, grave, young man, and they be-
gan to chatter away in French.
•" Those letters, Miss Clifford's letters, were from a
priest,' said

" A priest! no.' said the young Frenchman. ' They
were from a lady !'
" Why, how could you translate these letters and
think they were from a lady ?' said Mrs. L-; and
she eagerly seized one of Marie's copies to show the im-
possibility of understanding the writer to be a lady.
She ran her eye down a page. There is frequent
mention of the General,' said she, ' the General of the
Jesuits.'

"' It does not say what general,' they replied, it
might be a father or brother, a military general.'
" Here he talks of keeping his retreat,' she said again.
" ' Ladies have retreats, too,' they replied.
"And true enough, as she looked down page after page,
she saw that they would suit equally with either of
Marie's assumed characters, an aunt or an uncle."

Having thus discovered the imposture, Mr. and Mrs.
L. determined to institute some inquiries at the con-
vents of I. and S. The following is the account of
the interview with the authorities of the two convents.
The first visit was to 1., where the following collo-
quy took place:—
" Mrs. L.—' We called to make some inquiries about a
young person who was educated here. sho was after-
wards a governess in the family of some friends of ours,
and left on account of ill health. It is necessary that
she should find another home ; and as our friends were
not fully satisfied, we thought that, perhaps, you would
ravour us with a little information respecting Ler.'
" S.—' What is her name ?'
" Mrs. L.—' M-- L--

"Mrs. L.—' Perhaps she was here before you?'
" S.—' Oh, no! I have been Superioress of this con-
vent for a number of years. lam quite sure that we
have had no one here of that name.'
" Mrs. L.—' Sho states that she was twice here: on
one occasion for a period of two years; and that she has
been seventeen years in a convent of your order. She
says that she used to write letters for Madame D'll--'
(Very Reverend Mother).
" S.—' That cannot be, for Madame DTI-- never
has any one but a religious person to write for her. She
cannot speak English, and she never comes to England.'
" Mrs. L.—' It is just possible that this young person
may have changed her namo. Perhaps you may recog-
nise the handwriting,' producing a specimen.
"S.-6 This is the handwriting taught in our schools,
certainly.'
" Mrs. L.—' She says that Madame de la R--, who
died last June, and who joined your community when
she became a widow, was her aunt.'
" S.—' Madame de la R-- was never married, and she
is still living.'
" Mrs. L.—' Perhaps you would know this young per-
son's portrait. I have brought it with me.'
" S.—' No ; Ido not know this face. I am sure she
was never here.'

" After a pause the Superioress added, "Perhaps you
will allow me to take it out of the room for a few
minutes, to see if any one else can recognise it.'
" The lady:left the room—the piano ceased, the voices
i❑ the hall dropped, and a quiet debate appeared to be
going on. In a few minutes she re-appeared.
" ' No, we do not know the person; but we think that
Madame (Reverend Mother), who is now at
S--, would be able to tell you. She may have been
brought up there.'
"Mrs. I did not know that there was any school
at S--, except the poor school.'
"S.—` Oh, yes! there is a very large school for an
inferior class of pupils to those who aro brought up
here. Madame will be hero to-morrow, or you
could see her at 5 this evening, if more con-
venient.'

" They thanked her, and returned to town by the next
train. They went back to Mr. K-'e, and thence
hastened to S---.

" It was nearly eight o'clock when they entered the
outer gate in the street, by the side of the Catholic
chapel; and pasing through the little court, or garden
to another entrance, they rang the bell. A novice in
her white cap drew back the little sliding panel, and in-
quired their business.
" We wish to see Madame . We will not de-
tain her many minutes. We have been to I-, ex-
pecting to find her there, or we would not have come at
so late an hour.'

" The novice withdrew, and presently another came,
unlocked the door, and showed them into a little room
close to the gate. The floor was covered with oil-cloth,
and there were a few wooden chairs.

"Presently a third person appeared, and led them into
another little room adjooining the first. It was carpeted,
and a little better furnished than the other. It looked
out into the largo courtyard, where several nuns with
measured steps were passing to and fro. A large range
of buildings surrounded this court; but they had scarcely
observed thus much when another messenger came up
to ask the name of each. The names were given, and
she withdrew.

"Finally Madame --, the Reverend Mother, ap-
peared. Mrs. L-- again stated the case as at I-,
and asked if Madame - could oblige her with any
particulars res.pecting Marie.
" 0 yes! She was with us for a month about a year
and a half ag;o.'
" Only a month ! She says that she was seventeen
years in cotivents of your Order, and that she had been
for the two last years a postulant.'
" She was not with us longer than a month or five
weeks. She was introduced to me by the Reverend
---, a priest in Liverpool, as a
young person who
had become a Catholic, and was very much persecuted
by her Protestant friends. She was obliged to leave
home and wanted an asylum, and be said that it would
be kind if I would take her.'
" She says that she was six weeks in your Liverpool
convent, and two years at I--•
" She never set foot in our Liverpool convent. I
brought her to town with me the same night, and we
made her up a bed in the little parlour, because the
house was full. She wanted to go to I-, and she was
there for ono day, but I sent her back again, for we have
none but young ladies there, and we only employ per-
sons of confidence.'
" She says that she has been in convents of your Order
at Amiens, Slanotte, Paris, Chattauroux, Carrouge,
Nice, and Limerick.'
" •It is very true that we have convents at all these
places, but she has never been in them.'
" I should like to be quite sure that it is the same.
Do you know this portrait?'
"6 0 yes! That is she certainly.'
Will you kindly tell me why she left you?'
Yes. After she bad been with us a little while she
became restless, and said that her temporal affairs re.
quired her return to her friends. She showed me some
sort of deed, and a lawyer's letter, and said that she
should lose her property if she did not go.'
" And how did she go?'
"'She said that a friend of her family lived in ---
Street, and that if she went to her, she knew that she
could soon get back to her relations in the north. I
sent, but probably the lady had moved, for no such perm

1851.

son could be found. She went out another day, and
Dame back, saying that she had found her friend, and
that she would come for her at halt-p..IA six o'clock. I
offered to send a responsible person to ascertain that it
was all right; but, she said there was no occasion, as she
was quite satisfied. A lady in a cab came that night,
and she went. As her health was delicate, and she did
not feel well enough to do anythin, we were not on the
whole sorry that she decided on leaving.'
"Mrs. L-- thanked Madame ---, and rose to
leave. The lady requested that her name might not be
brought forward, and Mrs. L--- promised that it
should not. She was a very well conducted young
person while with us,' added Madame ---, have
nothing to say against her.'

Notwithstanding Marie's confession that she was an
impostor, the Rev. S. L. did not at once abandon her
to her fate, neither did he, as we are inclined to think
he ought to have done, give her into custody ; but
having learned from her that certain ladies at °Ghent,
who kept a school, and with whom she. said she was
acquainted, would receive her, he shipped her off on
I board the Ostend packet, the steward of, which saw her
take the train for Ghent; on visiting Ghent some few
months afterwards, the Rev. S. L. made inquiries for
Marie, but no trace could ba found either of her or of
the ladies she bad mentioned, and since that period she
has been seen in London, an d is probably at this moment
i
a spy in some Protestant family. That Marie ea spy
in the hands of the continental Jesuits we think is evi-
dent, and while we state this we at once acquit the
ladies of the establishments at I. and at S. of all com-
plicity in the plot. On the Liverpool priest who intro-
duced her to these ladies much suspicion rests,
but he, we are inclined to believe, was a mere sub •
ordinate ; the concoctors of the plot are to be found
in France, and perhaps the biographer of St. Elizabeth
of Hungary could, if be chose, enlighten us as to the
real history of l\larie L. G. The letters from the
supposed Mr. Clifford were, it is true, all posted in
London (in almost every letter he states that he has
sent it in the church parcel to be forwarded), but of
the various letters addressed to him at Manotte, at
Marseilles, at Nice, not one was returned ; there must,
therefore, have been accomplices at all these places,
and at all these places the French Jesuits have
large establishments. The objects of the imposture
were various, and it was so cunningly contrived that
one or other of them must inevitably succeed. The
Romish priests boast of the numbers who have recently
left the Anglican Church for Rome, but' these are far
outnumbered by those who have left the Romish
Church and embraced Protestantism, but who dare
not make open profession of their faith until they
have found refuge in some Protestant household,
where they may be safe from the persecution to
which they would he, by order of the priests, sub-
jected. Now the case of Marie L. G., should her im-
posture be discovered, was the one of all others cal-
culated to induce Protestants to shut their doors
against any proselytes from Rome, and thus to " give
a heavy blow and a great discouragement " to the
progress of these conversions, while, in the mean-
time, the spy was making herself acquainted with the
minutest details of, the history of the Protestant mi-
nister and his flock, which were, no doubt, regularly
transmitted to the Jesuit head-quarters, and there
carefully recorded for future use. But this was not all,
nor near all that the Jesuits hoped to accomplish by
locating the spy in the family of the Rev. S. L.; the
main and principle object was no doubt to endeavour
to blast the character of an exemplary Protestant
clergyman, and to hold him up to the world as a ca-
lumniator. The pretended autobiography of Marie
was, it appears, fairly copied out from her rough
draft by Mrs. L. Now Marie, after it had been
so copied out, was exceedingly anxious to regain pos-
session of her original MS., and at the same time was
importunately urging the publication of the autobio-
graphy. The autobiography was no doubt so care-
fully compiled as to admit of the production of direct
and indisputable evidence in contradiction to every
essential particular. had the Rev. S. L., therefore,
acceded to Marie's desire on this point, there cannot
be a doubt that immediately after the pub-
lication Marie and her MSS. would have
disappeared, a cloud of witnesses from all quarters
would have borne testimony to the falsehood of the
statements contained in the autobiography, the Rev.
S. L. would have been challenged to produce the
original MSS., and on his confession of his inability
to do so, the Holy Fathers would at once have de-
nounced him as an unprincipled fabricator of calum-
nious falsehoods, and John of Tuam would have pro-
bably held him up as a pattern specimen of Protes-
tant " vermin." Fortunately, this cunningly-devised
scheme has been rendered abortive by the straight-
forward truthfulness of the different members of the
family, and by the plain, good common sense of
Mrs. L. It, however, by no means follows that such
will always be the result of these attempts, and it is
a duty the Rev. S. L. owes to society to give the names
and addresses of all the parties concerned at full length;
and, above all, to unkeunel the Liverpool priest, whose
evidence would probably lead to a discovery of the
real culprits.

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, WEDNESDAY.

The Queen, with her Royal, Highness the Princess
Royal, drove out this morning. in a pony phaeton in
Windsor Park, Colonel Buckley attending on horse-
back.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert rode out this morn•
ing on horseback, attended by Lieut.-Colonel Alexander
Gordon.

The Royal Family took walking and pony exorcise in
the Slopes and Windsor-park.
The Royal dinner party this evening will include her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Lady Fanny
Howard, the Baroness de Speth, and Lieut.-Colonel F.
H. and Lady Emily Seymour. The band of the Grena-
dier Guards will attend and play during dinner, and her
Majesty's private band will afterwards perform.
The Countess of Cbarlemont has succeeded the Mar-
chioness of Douro in her duties as Lady in Waiting to
her Majesty.

Lady John Russell has issued invitations for two
grand assemblies on the 14th of May and 4th of June.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.
OXFORD, APRIL 22.

ELDON LAW SCHOLARSHIP.

The eighth election of an Eldon Scholar will take
place on Wednesday, the 4th of June next, at the resi-
dence of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, 51, Portland-
place, London. All applications must be left at the
office of the Honorary Secretary (Mr. T. Metcalfe, 5,
New-square, Lincoln's-inn) sealed up and endorsed
" Eldon Scholarship—candidate's application," and with
the candidate's name also endorsed. The forms of cer-
tificates and declarations required, together with the
rules and regulations relative to such election, are depo-
sited with the senior tutor of each college and hall, and
with the Registrar of the University.
The annual value of the scholarship is 2001. for three
years.