The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-27 00:00:00

TEE CONVENT CASE.

At last the Court of Queen's Bench has got rid of so
much of the odour of sanctity as hung round the case of
"Saurin v. Starr." The interest yesterday, when Sir
Alexander Cockburn commenced his summing up, was
greater than on any previous day. The precincts of the
court were filled by half-past nine by an anxious crowd,
who, when the doors were opened, rushed in in admired
disorder, and occupied every nook and corner. Amidst
breathless silence the Lord Chief Justice proceeded to con-
gratulate the jury most heartily at their having arrived at
the closing day of this monster case. He regretted so much
valuable time had been lost by them, and, on public
grounds, that so many cases of importance had to be post-
poned in order to investigate the miserable jealousies of
convent life, which he thought might have been better,
and ought to have been, investigated by the visitorial
power of the convent ; but the case was here, and they
must do their best to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion
ulon it. He urged them to put aside all
religious feeling, and recollect that that question
was not at all mixed up in it. The parties were all mem-
bers of the same religious body, and they had bound them-
selves by certain vows, rules, and regulations. The
question was, whether in carrying out those rules
the defendants had acted wrongly. The trial,
ho thought, had acquired a factitious import.
ance, and they must take care that neither
party derived any undue advantage from the religious
element that was mixed up in it. The plaintiff first
complained of an assault in the stripping in May 1865 ;
secondly, that she had been illegally imprisoned ; thirdly,
that the defendants had converted several articles of hers
to their own use ; fourthly, of a libel ; and
lastly, of a conspiracy, which was the most
important of the whole. First, to force her from the
convent by ill-usage, and, secondly, having so failed to
have her expelled, to assist him in coming to a just con-
clusion, it would be his business to give them a history
of the case which extended over a period of 15
years. He should commence with her entry into
Bagott-street in 1850, dividing the period from that time
to her leaving the convent into several epochs. The first
would embrace from 1850 to 1860-61 ; the next would be
from 1861 to 1864, when she was transferred from
Clifford to Hull, when, as the plaintiff alleged,
the conspiracy and the acts complained of com-
menced, from 18.64 to the time of the commission ;
the next what took place under the commission; and then,
the last closing chapter in the history of this painful case,
viz., the matters of which she complained during the
period which intervened between the bishop's sentence of
expulsion and her final withdrawal from the convent.
He believed he was addressing twelve gentlemen who be-
longed to the great Protestant communion, but although
they might regard the objects of convent life with dislike,
whatever they might think of the withdrawal of women
from those functions of life on which in the main human
happiness rested--of that attempt to obliterate human in-
terests and chill human affections—of that yield-
ing up of woman's life to those minute triviali-
ties and petty observances which had been de.
tar/eel—however they might regard all this as
opposed to the voice of nature—with all such considera-
tions the jury had nothing whatever to do. This was not
a case of a Protestant parent coming into that court to
complain that his child had been inveigled into a convent;
they. were dealing with the complaint of one whose grievance
was that his child was not allowed to live there. And here he
must pause to declare that the language of the Solicitor-
General in reference to convent life had positively startled
him, remembering that he was the advocate of a client
who, far from decrying convent life, openly and per-
sistently avowed that her dearest object on earth was to
continue to reside within the walls of a convent. Passing
from that, his lordship's final direction to the jury under
this head was that, if they wished to try the case
properly, they must try it as if they were twelve
right-minded Roman Catholics. They could not other-
wise do justice. Next addressing himself to the
pleadings, his lordship said the substantial defence to
the main heads of complaint was embraced under the legal
maxim, " Volenti non fit injuria." Ex concesszs up to the
moment of Miss Saurin's deposition as a member of the
community she had no right to any property. Sub-
sequently to that, although still remaining in the
convent, her right might have revived. He was,
however, very glad to hear the Solicitor-General declare
that it was not to be contended that the sum paid into court
was not amply sufficient to cover the head of damages. But
he owned he was not a little pained that the charge of
assault was to be insisted on. The only foundation for the
charge was that when Miss Saurin did not take off her
clothes with sufficient celerity, Mrs. Starr and Mrs.
Kennedy rudely tore them from her. One shilling
damages would amply compensate such a wrong. At the
same time the defendants directly contradicted the evidence
under this head. As to the imprisonment, it was beyond
all question that there had been none until long after
Vie. depositions had gone before the Bishop, which had
produced the final conclusion in the Bishop's mind that
the_ plaintiff should leave the convent. The real gravamen
of.the 'complaint, and that on which the plaintiff must
have .a verdict—or she must fail altogether—was
a charge- of conspiracy. In order to assist the jury to
arrive at just conclusion upon that head, it would be
necessary, said his lordship, to review the whole case.
To that end he would divide the history into five
epochs, commencing with the earliest years of the
plaintiff's conventual life, and terminating with her
departure from the institution at Hull. The whole history
extended over no less than fifteen years. He began thus
early for this reason. If from the very first Miss Saurin
was found setting at nought the rules of convent life, and
defying the orders of her superiors ; or if, on the other
hand, the defendants were found from the commencement
shewing signs of being actuated by base and sinister
objects in their relations with the plaintiff,
either alternative must have a most important influ-
ence upon their ultimate conclusions. And now he
approached what was stated to be the origin of the ill-
treatment which Miss Saurin had experienced at the
asaases sas— nes,,shs 1 =l-
- to disclose to Mrs. Starr what had passed between
her and her confessor in confession. And here again he
must pause to express how startled he was to find how
the Solicitor-General had dealt with this cardinal
point in the case. Miss Saurin's statement could
have had but one interpretation, and yet the Solicitor-
General did not hesitate to give that interpretation the
go-by. His lordship declared, with indignation, that neither
he nor the jury could permit such playing fast and loose
with the case. Mies Saurin had made a most odious
charge. If she succeeded in establishing its
truth, she had saddled upon Mrs. Starr conduct
the most detestable. On the other hand, had she invented
this story for the purpose of preventing the defendants
travelling back, and unveiling the former years of her
convent career? Then there was the charge of defaming
the plaintiff's character. With respect to the statement
about the alleged familiarity with the priest—assuming
that it meant no more than what those ladies declared it
meant—l cannot help lamenting the language used, which
certainly was too strong. But, on the whole, you must
judge whether the intention was to carry out a purpose
of imposing false charges upon the Bishop in
order to induce him to expel the plaintiff from the
Order ; that is to say, to impose upon him by means
of charges for which there was no real foundation. The
Lord Chief Justice here went particularly into the evi-
dence as to the charges of taking trifling articles, and he
then came to the charge of taking Sister Catherine's medal.
But (he proceeded) that is not all. The witness tells us this
most startling story—that when the body was taken into
the chapel, the plaintiff, having been in attendance on
her in her last moments, went into the chapel, where
was the coffin with the dead body in it, habited as
a nun for burial, and she then describes a scene
which it almost takes away the breath to recount.
She says she saw Sister Scholastica go to the coffin
and stoop over the dead body and take away the sleeves
which formed part of the burial dress, and hide them in
the chancel, and then fold the cloak over the breast of
the corpse, that the absence of the sleeves might not be
observed when they came to close the coffin for ever. If
you can believe that story ; if you can believe that in that
chapel where she was in the habit of daily worshipping, in
the presence of the symbols of the life to come, she stripped
off the graveclothes from the body of her deceased Sister,
that she might afterwards wear them; if you believe
she did an act which shocks every sentiment and feeling
of our common nature, there is probably nothing else you
would have any difficulty in believing against her. There
are, no doubt, great difficulties in believing it. The Sister
who witnessed it never mentioned it until after she
had made her statement for the Bishop ; and it
seems incredible that it should have been done in
the presence of a witness. But it is for you to judge of
this and every other part of this painful story. The Lord
Chief Justice then went on to advert to the charges as to
stea';ng the children's dinners, and to the contradictory
evidence, and in like manner he put to the jury whether
there had or had not been untruth, and whether, even if
the charge was not true in fact, there was reasonable
ground for believing it. No doubt, he said, these were
charges of acts of a most disgraceful character, and if the
jury believed that they were not only unfounded, but
trumped up, they would have to consider what damages
they coup 1 award to the plaintiff as compensation for such
atrocious Imputations. Upon that they must form
their own judgment. After adverting to the commis-
sion (in which he said he thought there had been a sad
miscarriage of justice in not producing the nuns to
be examined),. the Lord Chief Justice went on to lay
Sown—as to the conduct of the defendants in sending in
the statements to the Bishop—that they would not be liable
either on the count for liable or conspiracy if they sent in
lent in the statements honestly and bond fide. Adverting

en the incident of the taking away the plaintiff's ring, he
said he thought it was an act of unnecessary cruelty and
harshness. After noting the other matters as to the
alleged imprisonment, &c.—leaving them to the jury—the
Lord Chief Justice, in conclusion, made an earnest and elo-
quent appeal to the jury to decide the case dispassionately.
The case, he said, is in your hands. All I ask of you is that
you allow no prejudices to influence you or your judgment.
The current of popular feeling, the echoes of which have
been heard within these walls, ought to find no entrance
here. The cries of an unthinking populace ought to find
no response in the breasts of twelve honest and intelligent
men, who have come to discharge, and will discharge, one
of the most solemn duties men can be called on to dis-
' charge, only according to their right sense of truth and
the dictates of their unfettered consciences ! All I ask
you is to hold, as I in my province have endeavoured to
hold, the scales of justice equal and even, and, having so
adjusted them—as right, and truth, and justice require—
let them incline the one way or the other.
The jury retired to consider their verdict, and were
absent from court for more than an hour. On their
return they delivered in a verdict for the plaintiff on the
counts for conspiracy and libel, for £5OO, including, how-
ever, the £3O), the amount of the dowers, so that the net
amount of the verdict is £2OO. They found for the
defendants on the minor counts.

The moment the verdict for the plaintiff was known it
was communicated like lightning to the multitude out-
side, and a loud cheer was heard reverberating through
Westminster Hall. Thus ended this extraordinary case,
which while it lasted caused an excitement quite unpre-
cedented within living memory. The Lord Chief Justice
expressed his high acknowledgments for the services of the
police on the occasion.