The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-18 00:00:00

TEE CONVEAT CASE.

On the resumption yesterday of the case of " Saurin v.
Starr and Kennedy," Mrs. Milligan's examination in
chief was continued by Mr. 0. Russell. She said : After
the plaintiff was expelled there were no complaints what-
ever about the children's dinners. One day in 1865 I saw
Miss Saurin attempt to pull the strings out of her coif,
and, failing to do so, she cut them out. She denied it when
Mrs. Kennedy reproved her for it. At one of the redistri-
butions of clothes Miss Saurin had a petticoat witli six
layers of material ; enough had been used to make
three petticoats—the outer covering was of very fine mate-
rial—the layers were not necessary to cover the holes in
the garment. It was taken to pieces, and I got one pettit
coat out of it, and material was left for other purposes.
She took articles of mine without leave. She had a
pocket handkerchief of mine, from which had been taken
the " three nails" worked on it in silk. Miss Saurin's
penances were not unusual. I have frequently had to
wear things on my head. It was a general penance for not
marking things sent to the wash to be worn during
spiritual lecture. I barn frequently had to hold my
boots and cloak in my hand, at the end of the community
table, for leaving them about. Mrs. Starr never asked
me to divulge my confessions. I was a great deal with
Miss Saurin after her sentence of expulsion. I was with
her from the 12th February until the end of March. I
had sprained my knee, and ,it only required rest
and cold water applications. There were no sisters
with her with bad legs, who used linaments.

There were none there, and no liniments. There
was no offensive smell, and the windows of the room were
always opened when she went to mass, and frequently at
other times. It is untrue that she was not permitted to
leave her room for any purpose. She left it on an average
ten times a day. There were chairs within her reach in
the bath-room, for sitting on. One she kept her books on,
and she seemed to prefer sitting on the floor. She
sometimes sat on the chairs, and then she sat
with her feet on them, as if she were sitting
on the floor. She sometimes sat on her bed.
I never prohibited her from sitting on the chair. No
instructions of that kind were given to me. After the
order of dismissal, she appeared to try to make herself ill.
She sat up in bed with only her night-dress on, and at
other times she got out of bed early and put her feet into
cold water. She abstained from food. It was not
always mutton, but generally so. The boots described
by Miss Sarnia as being badly broken are
in existence now, and in use, I believe, by Mrs. King.
Miss Saurin complained that vermin was in the blanket in
the attic. I examined the sheets and blankets very care-
fully, but there was no sign of any such thing about
them. She said she had been given the blankets of the
pupil teachers on which they had combed their hair ; but it
was untrue. I took her bedclothes up from the bath-room,
and I had also the charge of the pupil-teachers',bedclothes.
They could not havo been carried up without my know-
ledge. She had every facility for washing—soap, nail-
brush, tooth-brush, tooth-brush mug, water, &c. I fre-
quently saw her use them.
Cross-examined by the Solicitor-General : Miss Saurin
was a great cloud upon us. I never had the slightest ill-
feeling for Miss Saurin. I liked her, but she was not an
amiable person. I liked her for the love of God.
The Solicitor-General: In the way a Christian loves his
enemies?
Witness : I don't say that. I had not naturally such
an affection for her as for Mrs. Starr. I liked her.
The Solicitor-General : As a matter of duty ?
Witness : I liked her as much as I liked the others, but
not naturally.
The Solicitor-General: By an effort of nature?
Witness : I don't say that. There was no shade of
difference in my feelings towards her. Miss Saurin could
not teach. All my efforts to instruct her in the method of
teaching were useless. She did not teach the alphabet.
The Solicitor-General : Then she was incorrigible?
The Lord Chief Justice complained of the word
"incorrigible " being put to the witness.
The Solicitor-General : Then I will withdraw it.
Witness : Incorrigible is too strong a word. She did
not seem to take advantage of my instruction as others
had done. The children who did not wish to learn

,ried to get into her class, but I would not let

them. I was never at Clifford with Miss Saurin.
I don't mean to say when Miss Saurin met the twenty or
thirty children who brought very nice dinners, that she
took so many dinners daily. She used to look at them ;
she knew what the children had, and I infer from the
complaints that were made that she selected those
dinners to take from which she considered the best. I
suppose she did a little private refection after
I had left the school-room. In 1565, Mrs.
O'Brien had sent to say Miss Saurin had taken her
child's dinner, and eaten it, and that she should take him
away from the school. I promised it should not occur
again, and I took the child under my care. The O'Briens
and the servant have left Hull. That is the only name I
can particu!arise. I mentioned the circumstance to Mrs.
Starr, but not to Miss Saurin ; but I took his dinners
more than once from Miss Saurin and gave it to the
child. I was placed over her in the school, because I was
a certificated teacher. I think Miss Saurin's mark at
one time was three nails and a cross. I knew my hand-
kerchief without the mark. Miss Saurin was under no re-
straint. She hail a sister with her.
The Lord Chief Justice : She was at perfect liberty to
go where she pleased with the sister.
The Solicitor-General : I opened the case as not that the
plaintiff could not get cut, but that she waited to remain

n.
The Lord Chief Justice : But when you tell her to walk
out and she will not, I don't think that is false imprison-
ment. The plaintiff could have gone out as soon as she
liked, but she would not ; and the having a person to
watch her is not false imprisonment. I shall hold that the
moral restraint in this case was not false imprisonment.
The plaintiff has first to shew that she had any right to be
in the convent at all at this particular time.
Mr. Mellish : I shall submit she had no right to be
there.
The Lord Chief Justice : The case is stronger when
there is a visitor who has the right to remove and who
exercises that power.
Mr. Mellish : That will be another question. It is
important with regard to the commission. If the rule of
law is that the plaintiff had no right in the convent, and
that the visitor exercised his authority, then it is a question
for the Court of Chancery, and not for a court of
law. It is a pare matter of trust.
The Lord Chief Justice : I am desirous of hearing the
whole of the evidence, and of reserving any questions of
law that might arise. There are some difficult and com-
plicated questions behind. The plaintiff's great point
in the case is the conspiracy, and that divides into two
branches. First, did the defendants conspire by illtreatment
to drive the plaintiff out of the convent, and, secondly,
having so conspired, did they make false accusations to in-
duce the bishop to expel her? To prove the second branch it
is necessary to go into the evidence laid before the bishop
and the commission. I entertain the clearest view that if
their statement to the bishop was honestly made, they are
not responsible for the miscarriage of the commission. If,
honestly, though injudiciously made, they are not liable
or the conduct of the commission.
Witness was further cross-examined on the numerous
facts and circumstances in the case, but nothing material
was elicited. She said she should have been glad to have
wished the plantiff good-bye.
The Lord Chief Justice : That seems to have been the
general feeling of the community.
Witness : Yes it was. (Laughter).
Mrs. Elizabeth Hewitson (lay sister), said: After Sister
Mary Catherine's death, I and the plaintiff were ordered
to prepare her body for burial. They are buried in the
habit as they receive it at the time of their reception. I
got, at Miss Saurin 's request, a better one out, and,
as she desired, I took out one of the
inside sleeves, whilst she took out the other,
to put on the deceased sister. I think she put them on
the deceased, but I afterwards saw her take them off, and
put with other clothing apparel that belonged to Sister
ok
Mary Catherine. A coffin
e
short time before the ffin
l
was screwed down the coffin
oat thisoff time
the
out-
sidew was
in the chapel—Miss
Saurin
same
e and
time gave t themo
put
themto me,uttelolifngsigmhet
at the
behind the stalls in the chapel. I afterwards saw Miss
Snurin tvprir the sleeves, and six mo Tit] later I
saw
them
in her cell. On such occasions a church cloak, which is
very large, is put over the deceased, and Miss S • drew
aurm
it over the body of the deceasedso that it could not
be seen. The night when 'Sister Mary Catherine
died, Miss Saurin told me to ga
coifs
and guimps, intending to put one on each of thseeir ceased
I bought her three of the first and four of the latter. I
was going to put the •
remainder away, but Miss Saurin
said, " Leave them there, and I will wear them out." I
afterwards collected the deceased's clothing, but very
little remained. When plainti • •
ff went hurriedly to Hull
I found between her mattress and the bed a pocket-
handkerchief, night veil, and coif, which I recognised as
part of Sister Mary Catherine's wearing apparel. About
a month after I saw her wearing a pair of shoes and stock-
ings that also belonged to the deceased sister.
The Lord Chief Justice : As I understand you, a nun is
buried in her full canonical dress.
'Witness : Yes ; a few days before her death she asked
me to sew on a silver devotional medal on her scapulas, as
she wished it and the scapulas to be buried with her.
I put the ribbon on her neck whilst she was still alive,
and placed the scapulas and medal on her breast. When
in her coffin I looked for them, but found the medal was
gone. It could not have dripped off. I could see it
was cut off. Miss Saurin and myself were the only
with the deceased. I did
persons who had anything to do
not take the silver medal. This occurred at Hull.
The Solicitor-General: Your lordship will remember r
Saurin, that not a word of this was put to Miss except as
to the medal.
Witness : I don't know if Miss Saurin had a silver
medal of her own, but en her return to Hull
in 1860 Miss Saurin asked me if I Lad
found a silver medal. which she lost when she left
Bull for Clifford. In I,
I "Is sent to Miss Saurin,
who was in her cell
at Clifford, with water to bathe her
feet. I noticed round her head a Dace of flannel, of very
line texture, similar to Sister Mary Catherine's retticoats. '
She had finer flannel than any other raster in the convent.
In that year I asked th' perims;:cn of the supeilor
at Clifford to mend my habit with some pieces of black
material that were in the attic. She did so in Miss
Saurin's presence. On the following morning she went
there. I knew it was the plaintiff by the way she ran
down stairs. She usually ran down stairs more
hurriedly than the others. In the course of the
morning, and before the sisters had come back from
sthool, I went up for the pieces of black material, but I I
found they were gone. After the commission, but before
the plaintiff left, I was ripping Miss Saurin's habit,
in it I found what I believed to be the black* and
woollen
material I required. They were sown in the habit, where
It was unnecessary to repair a hole.
Evidence talc like d
WAs, akYclIA cloic ply