The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-17 00:00:00

MARCH 17, 1851.

TAKING THE VEIL.

THE PETITION OF CRAVEN FITZHARDINGE BERKELEY
TO THE HON- THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KING-
DoM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN PARLIA-
MENT ASSEMBLED

Humbly showeth—
That he intermarried with Augusta Talbot, the widow
of George Henry Talbot, who was the half-brother of
the present Earl of Shrewsbury.
That the said George Henry Talbot left two children
him surviving, namely, John, who was heir presumptive
to tale Earldom, and Augusta, an infant, now of the age
of 19 years and upwards.
That the said infant, Augusta Talbot, resided with
your petitioner and her mother up to the time of the
death of the latter, which took place on the 25th day of
April, 1841.
That since that period and up to the month of Septem-
ber last the said infant, Angusta Talbot, has resided with
the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury.
That in consequence of the death of the said John Tal-
bot the said infant, Augusta Talbot, became absolutely
entitled to a sum of 80,0001., or thereabouts.
That the said infant, Augusta Talbot, is a ward ofth e
Court of Chancery.
That in the month of September last the said Earl
and Countess of Shrewsbury placed the said infant,
Augusta Talbot (notwithstanding she is a ward of Court,
as aforesaid), at the convent called the Lodge, situate
at Taunton, in the county of Somerset, not as a pupil
or visitor, but as a postulant, with the avowed object of
allowing the said Augusta Talbot to take the veil and
become a nun.

That in the month !of September next the period of
probation or postulancy will have expired, and the said
infant, Augusta Talbot, will be compelled by the rules
and regulations of the said convent, and by the priest-
hood of the Roman Catholic Church, to take the white
veil during her minority, and notwithstanding the said
infant, Augusta Talbot, is a ward of the Court of Chan-
cery.
That having taken the white veil, there is no retreat
for the said infant, Augusta Talbot, and she will be com-
pelled to take the black veil in September, 1852, or
shortly afterwards.
That on the 6th day of June, 1852, the said infant,
Augusta Talbot, will attain her 21st year, when she will
become entitled to receive the said sum of 80,0001.

That being a nun at that period, the 80,000/. will
become confiscated to the said convent, or to the eccle-
siastical revenues of the Church of Rome, or to the en-
dowment, enrichment, or maintenance of some bishopric
or deanery or other ecclesiastical benefice of the said
Church of Rome, or the said infant, Augusta Talbot,
will be compelled by some assurance in the law to trans-
fer all right and interest in the said sum of 80,0001.

That it is one of the doctrines of the Church of Rome
that no member of the said Church shall be permitted to
exercise his or her private judgment in religious mat-
ters, but that in all such religious matters he or she is
bound to submit to the authority of the said Romish
Church, and to the direction of the priesthood thereof.
That in a certain work by Nicholas Wiseman, who is
a high ecclesiastical authority in the Romish Church, on
the principle doctrines and practices of the said Romish
Church, under the head of " Lecture 1.," introduction,
page 16, the following passage occurs:—" The Catholic
Church is thus as a city to which avenues lead from
every side, towards which men may travel from any
quarter by the most diversified roads, by the thorny and
rugged way of strict investigation, by the more flowery
path of sentiment and feeling, but arrived at its pre-
cincts, all find that there is but one door to the sheep-
fold—narrow and low perhaps, and causing flesh and
blood to stoop as it passes in. They may wander about
its outskirts, they may admire the goodliness of its edi-
fices and its bulwarks, but they cannot be its denizens
and children if they enter not by that ono gate of abso-
lute unconditional submission to the teaching of the
Church."

That in the said work, under the head of Lecture 111.,
page 76, the following passage occurs:--" For the
moment any Catholic doubts, not alone the principle of
his faith, but any of thoso doctrines which are thereou
based, the moment he allows himself to call in question
any of the dogmas which the Catholic Church teaches as
having been handed down with her, that moment the
Church conceives him to have virtually abandoned all
connexion with her, for she exacts such implicit obedi-
ence that if any member, however valuable, however he
may have devoted his early talents to the illustration of
her doctrines, fall away from his belief in any one point,
he is cut off without reserve, and wo have in our own

times seen striking and awful instances of this fact."
That the above opinions and declarations of the said
Nicholas Wiseman are the true doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church, and that the said infant, Augusta
Talbot, has had them instilled into her mind to the ex-
clusion of all other principles; and that the said infant,
Augusta Talbot, is bound to submit to the will and dic-
tation of the superior of the said convent, and to the
priesthood of the Church of Rome.
That your petitioner is deprived of all communica-
tion and connexion with his stepdaughter, the said in-
fant, Augusta Talbot ; and your petitioner's daughter,
the half-sister and only near female relative of the said
infant, August Talbot, is also prevented from cultivat-
ing those natural feelings of affection which but for the
reasons aforesaid would exist, and grow up between
them, to their mutual comfort and support.
Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that the
Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland will be pleased to take peti-
tion into their serious consideration, and that they will
be pleased to engraft a clause in the Bill entitled the
" Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill," now before
their Honourable House, which will prevent such
practices as are detailed in the said petition from
taking place; and that they will introduce a clause en-
acting that no infant, whether a ward in Chancery or
not, shall be permitted to be placed by her parents
or guardian, or any other person whomsoever, in any
convent or seminary, or place of education, or
other institution attached to the Church of Rome,
as a postulant during the minority of such infant, for
the purpose of enabling or compelling any such infant
to become a nun; and that in the event of any infant or
infants being now or hereafter placed within the walls of
any convent, seminary, place of education, or other in-
stitution attached to the said Church of Rome, as a
postulant, for the purpose of becoming a nun, that the
property, whether absolute or contingent, of any such
infant or infants shall vest in and enure to the use of
her Majesty, and shall and may be disposed of as her
Majesty shall be pleased by warrant, under her sign-
manual, to direct or appoint; or that a clause may be
introduced into the said Bill for throwing protection
round young persons who now are or may be hereafter
placed in convents with a view of taking the veil therein,
and appropriating their property thereto, either by
placing such establishments under the supervision of in-
spectors, appointed by Government, or by such other
means as to the Hon. House may seem best calculated to
put a stop to the aforesaid practices.
And your Petitioner will ever pray.
CRAVEN FITZTIARDINGE BERKELEY.
Berkeley-house, Spring-gardens.