The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-25 00:00:00

THE CONVENT CASE.

The convent case is drawing near its close, and the
public interest, as represented by the crowds round the
doors of the court, is reviving. Mr. Mellish resumed
his address to the jury yesterday. He argues from
the position and character of Mrs. Starr that it would be
impossible to believe all that is said against her ; while
the depositions of the plaintiff make the charges against
her possible, to say the least. Taking each item one by
one in the various classes, he contends that those brought
against the defendants are improbable, while those brought
against Miss Saurin are in, many cases absolutely
proved, and in other cases are by no means
unreasonable. He pointed out that all the sisters
wanted to get rid of Miss Saurin. The question
wiih regard to the children's food is not so much that
Miss Saurin took the food, but that the sisters informed
Mrs. Starr she did, and that the latter believed it. The
sisters spoke strongly to circumstances which led them to
believe Miss Saurin did take it. The evidence of the young
children called yesterday in contradiction should be received
with caution. '1 hey did not speak the particular
facts, but only that th..•y did not recollect being slapped
five years ago, or that they Lad lost any food. C'a Ing
attention to the letter from the plaintiffs hrot!.er, he :p ke
of it as a most extraordinary document ; it was equally ex-
traordinary that he, a confessor and a Jesuit, could have
acted in such a manner. What an enormous
exaggeration it was, and could they for a moment believe
that he had obtained information in his priestly character
and then have made it public. One operation, he said, had
been repeated four times, and anyone reading it would
have concluded that she had been scourged. She was,
he said, physically supported by God, and that would
lead to the inference that she was being starved.
It would be wrong to make the plaintiff answerable for
this letter. No mortal man could say Low much of that
letter was the invention of the man who wrote it.
The Lord Chief Justice : It might have been their joint
production.
Mr. Mellish: I don't make that charge, but it chews
beyond all possible doubt that Mrs. Starr might have had
excellent reasons for keeping the letters of this man
from his sister, as being unfit for her to read.
After some further comments on other matters, Mr.
Mellish indirectly protested against the action having been
brought at all. The bishop in this case was the proper person
to remove ; and this court will not inquire into the ques-
tion whether he acted according to the Roman Catholic law
or not. If he mistook that law, Miss Saurin had a remedy in
an appeal to the archbishop. This action is brought to
vindicate her character in the eyes of the Roman Catholic
world, in order that she night resume her conventual
life ; but your verdict would not have tte slightest effect
with regard to the latter, because she had an appeal to the
archbishop. What reason was there to suppose that perfect
justice would not have been done her if she had appealed
Archbishop Manning is a gentleman of high honour, a
most learned and just man, and if the plaintiff was dissa-
tisfied with his decision, she had an appeal to a holy see.
Thene is nothing we know of in the private character of
his Holiness to lead us to believe that in a matter of this
kind that he also would not have done perfect justice in
her case.

The Solicitor-General, replying on the whole case, argnea,
of course ; in favour of his client's tale being one of hard-
ships; he commented on the triviality of a great deal that
had had to be tried, and, taking up each case one by one,
contended that his client had been very badly treated.
The Lord Chief Justice promised in the course of the
arguments that he wou'd so 1 y the c I.se before the jury
that they would not have to try the cause over again.
The Solicitor-General continues his speech to-day.

NEWSPAPER PRESS FUND.—The managing com-
mittee of the Newspaper Press Fund have appointed
Saturday, the sth of June, for the anniversary dinner at
Willis's Rooms, at which Mr. Reverdy Johnson, the
American Minister, will preside.

At the Wednesbury Police Court, on Tuesday, four
cases of infringement of the Miues Inspection Act came
under consideration. The Government inspector was the
prosecutor in each cas... A charter master was charged
wilh absenting himself from a colliery without leaving a
competent person in charge. This case was adjourned.
The owner of another colliery was charged with
having insecurely fenced the shaft of an old pit; a third
offender had n'glected to provide a proper steam gauge to a
boil: r in use in his colliery; ar.d a fourth, a chartermaster,
had allowed a boy under 15 to work the raising machinery
in a gin pit: This offender was fined .C 26, while the other
two bad lighter fines imposed.

The Liverpool magistrates have afpointed a depu.
tation of justices from the bench, to co-operate with depu-
tations from other places, in pr.senting memorials to the
Home Secretary, praying for au alteration in the present
licensing system. Messrs. Lawrence, Robertson, Gladstone,
and Caine were chosen, and it was resolved that the two
points raised by the Salford bench should be supported, these
two points being that all licenses should be granted by one
and the same authority, and that all licensed houses should
b., required to close at an earlier and a un'fornt" hour. Some
regret war expressed tlntt CI., Goverment ha I not shown
mor., dispo:ition to deal with thy• qu-stioo, and it was deter-
mined that grunt presst.:-.3 sh.3u:d b brought to bear upon

them.

A Foniew'rat rem:la:able correspondeacc. says the
Manckester Goard:o7, taken place between tho Bishop of
Natal and one of tilo clergy of the Znlu wiss!on. In the
course of it letter to th Rev. Mr. Robertson the Bishop
wrote:—'You are still living. I hear, on land granted to
me for the Church of England, and over which I claim
the right of proprictorsLip, and shall exercise it at the proper
thm, s,(l proper wa.-." Mr. Robertson, in his reply,
addresses Dr. Colons() as "'The Right Rev. the Letters
Patent Nshop of Nat, l and defies him to turn him off
the land. "I have n advantage," wrote this meek
and courteous mibister. I the Gospel, "which the citizens of
m oscow had not, viz., a halfpenny Lox of matches.- Should
you lie aide to tun, 1116 nit, you would obtain nothing but a
heap of smoking ruins. I should utterly destroy the labour
er eiziat rears."

MISCELLANEOUS L ETV&