The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-28 00:00:00

A SPANISH WIRE-PULLER.

During a debate in the Spanish Chamber of De-
puties, a few days ago, the Liberal_ speaker con-
tended that the home administration and foreign
policy of the cabinet were directly influenced by the
arts and intrigues of a notorious female impostor,
a cheating, swindling nun—Sister Patrocinio. M.
Calderon-Collantes had, in the course of the debate,
positively denied that this evil genius of Queen
Isabella and of Spain had ever, at any previous
period of her life, been the object of a criminal in-
quiry and condemnation. I will furnish the
Chamber,"exclaimed M. Olozaga, " with the proofs."
And he straightway proceeded to read both the evi-
dence respecting and the sentence against Sister
Patrocinio, who, in the regency of Marie Christina,
was in the habit of beholding celestial visions, and
of working miracles in the interest of the Carlist,
party, inst as she now pretends to receive direct
communioations from heaven in the interests of the
Papal Government, and of its most devoted Spanish
partisans. In company with the lady abbess of her
convent and' an entire sisterhood of impostors, the
nun, of late years so powerful, lad then been
arrested. According to the testimony of the exa-
un't2ing judge, Sister Patrocinio had declared that
the foLlowing miracle was worked in her person :
The devil had whisked her out of her cell in the
middle of the night, and sat her down on the high-
way of Aranjue.z. He then and there expounded
to her that Queen Maria Christina was a lady of
very equivocal c;taracter, and that her daughter
Isabella neither we legally, nor ever would be a.'vir-
tually, Queen of Sp. ain. His Satanie Majesty
afterwards carried her
ff to the summit of Guadar-
rama, where he made ma.ny other startling disclo-
sures, all favourable to the Cerlist interests, and ex-
tremely damaging to the prospects of Queen Chris-
five and her daughter, taking care, when he brought
her back to the convent, to deposit her on the roof,
whence the other nuns :had considerable difficulty
in fetching her down with safety—a mode
of return providentially designed to establish
beyond all doubt the gen uineness of the miracle.
Sister Patrocinio, it appears. came to grief in con-
sequence of her visions ano miracles on behalf of
the Carlist cause. Now theta.e visions and miracles
are all on the other side—that Queen Isabella be-
lieves, and her mini:gen profe.as at least to believe,
in them—it has become the fa.i,hion in the Court.
circles of Madrid to forget or de,ily that she was
ever in the hands of police. But the menial solemnly
made by one of the leading members o.f the Spanish
Cabinet will probably not be repeater;before the
representatives of the Spanish people after the proofs
furnished to them at their sitting of the 13i.`11. One
of the secretaries read the sentence. Its terms were
to the effect that Don Juan Garcia Becerra, hono-
rary counsellor of the Royal Court of Madrid, found
it legally proved that Sister Maria del Patrocinio
had been guilty of trickery and imposture by means
of the marks on her feet, hands, and breast, of
which she had ascribed the origin to a direct mira-
cle of the Most High. But in consideration of her
having turned Queen's evidence, and having con-
tributed to discover the guilt of her accomplices,
she was only condemned to be transferred to some
other convent, distant not less than 40 leagues from
Madrid, there to be especially recommended to the
vigilance of the lady abbess and of the father con-
fessor, in order that she might have no opportunity
of repeating these swindling tricks.—Morning Post

COUNTRY 211A1?KLiA5.

..

WAKEFIELD-DEC. 27.

We have moderate arrivals of grain. The wheat trade
extremely limited, and the prices of last Friesy scarcely
maintained. Barley and other articles also meet an inactive
demand, at about late rates.

LIVERPOOL-DEC. 27.

A tolerably good attendance at our market to-day, and a
fair sale was experienced for wheat, at prices much the
same as last week. Flour was in moderate request, and
held for rather below previous quotations. Oats and oat-
meal difficult to sell. Beans and peas at late rates. Indian
corn was in fair demand.