The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-27 00:00:00

STVINDLINc BY A PRIEST.

An interdicted priest of the name of Vidal,
about thirty years of age, was on Saturday tried
by the Tribunal of Correctional Police on the
charge of swindling. Ile belongs, it appears, to
the diocese of Toulon and Frejus, but in 1857 was
placed under interdiction of his bishop for having
been concerned with a commission agent in
usurious money lending. He came up to Paris in
November of that year in a state of such extreme
poverty that his soutane was in rags—so much
so that boys followed him in the streets—and he
could obtain no other lodging than a garret, which
was given to him from charity, and in which he
slept on a mattress without any covering. In short
he would probably have died of starvation but for
two old women, both of them concierges, who
kindly supplied him with two meals a day. Not-
withstanding this he contrived to find fifteen per-
sons who each advanced 100 fr. to enable him to
establish a periodical called Les Conferences Eccle
siastigues, and he afterwards found other dupes,
who gave him money to start another journal
called L'Auxzliaire du Clerge des Vales et des
Campagnes. In connection with these publications
he engaged in a singular traffic. It is the
custom, it appears, for pious persons to pay priests
to say masses for particular "intentions," as the
phrase is, and that it often happens that one
single priest accepts payment for as many as 10,000
or 12,000 masses, the sum given being generally
1 fr. per mass. As it is impossible that he can get
through so many in a reasonable time, he is under
the necessity of transferring a portion of them to
other priests. Instead, however, of doing so di-
rectly, the practice is for a clerical bookseller to find
priests willing to say the masses, and, receiving the
money paid for them, giving in return a present of
books. Thus, supposing a priest had been paid for
1,200 or 1,500 masses more than he can celebrate
himself, he carries 1,200 fr. or 1,500 fr. to the book-
sellers, and receives 50fr., 100 fr., or 200 fr. worth
of books; the bookseller, in his turn, getting
priests to say the masses as cheaply as he can. By
means of this system, Vidal committed swindling.
He represented to a bookseter, named Gauguet,
that a vast number of priests had taken subscrip-
tions to his periodicals on condition of paying
them in masses for " intentions" to be indicated
by him; and Gauguet autiorised him to have
14,000 fr. worth of masses said, the sum to be paid
in books. But though Vidal received books to the
value of about 7,000 fr., he had nothing like that
amount of masses celebratel, and therefore was
charged with swindling tie tradesmen. He,
it is true, gave him a list of the priests by
whom he pretended that the greater part of
the masses had been performed, but it turned
oat afterwards that he had put down 360
as said by one priest, when )nly 60 had been cele-
brated ; 186 by another, instead of 18 ; and so on.
In addition to this, it was proved that defendant
had formed what he called Caisse des Economies
du Clergee, the object of which was, he said, to re-
ceive in deposit funds belonging to clergymen at
5 per cent. interest ; and he obtained about
140,000 fr., the greater part )f which sum he appro-
priated. It was likewise shown that he had bought
a large house and garden on the Boulevard Mont-
parnasse for 175,000 fr., but had only paid about
24,000 fr. of the amount; Set he represented the
house as a guarantee for the advances made to his
Caisse. The tribunal condemned him to three year's
imprisonment, 500 fr. fine, and five years' interdic-
tion of civil rights.

EXPORTATION OF COTTON FROM LIVERPOOL TO
NEW YORK.—Lost week no less than 15,000 bales of
Surat cotton were sent from Liverpool to North America,
via New York. Such an occurrence is, we believe, un-
precedented.
ANOTHER CRINOLINE ACCIDENT.—On Tuesday
a married woman, named Baylis, living in Bridport, near
Worcester, was very seriously burnt. She had been wash-
ing her daughter's child by the kitchen fire, :and was
washing her own face, when her dress, which was expanded
by crinoline, caught fire, and she was immediately enve-
loped in flames. She ran into the street shouting
for help, her clothes a mass of flames. Help was imme-
diately given by her neighbours, a blanket was thrown
over her, and she was carried into her house, where the
remains of the burnt clothes were cut off. A surgeon was
immediately sent for, who rendered every assistance, in his
power, but the poor woman now lies in a very precarious
state.

HULL STEAMERS.—By a private letter dated the
18th of August from 'Windom, on the Courland Coast, about
120 miles from Riga, addressed to Messrs. Good, Floodman,
and Co., Hull, we learn the sad tidings t hat part of a broken
nameboard has been found (probably that at the bows), on
which, in gilt letters on a blue ground, were the letters
"AR SO N," evidently part of the nameboard of the
lost Z. C. Pearson. This solo relic of this splendid vessel
was washed ashore on the 17th, and the letter contains an
expression of the writer's belief that, considering the time
that had even then elapsed, there could be no hopes enter-
tained of the safety of those on board. The fact that the
bow-board has been found tends to confirm the statement
previously made that the steamer was lost from collision.
HAILEYBURY COLLEGE.—This building, in which
so many of the civil servants of India were trained under
the old regime, to be sold by auction by order of the
Secretary of State in Council. The college is situate near
to Hoddesden end Hertford. It is of quadrangular form,
and contains accommodation for upwards of 100 persons
in separate rooms, with houses and gardens for the prin-
cipals. It is surrounded by 55 acres of land, laid out in
paddocks and cricket grounds. The college took its name
from a former chairman of the East India Board of Direc-
tors,