The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-28 00:00:00

PERSECUTION, POPERY, AND PETER DENS

(From the Leinster Express.)
A young girl, of excellent character and much intelli-
gence, who had been living as servant with an elderly widow,
one of the Society of Friends, having had, for the last two
years, many opportunities of reading the Bible, and receiv-
ing some light, began to entertain doubts as to the scriptu-
ral truth of the religion (the Roman Catholic) in which she
bad been reared. Those doubts, she declares, were still
further strengthened by the extraordinary and revoltingly
indelicate questions put to her by the priest when at confes-
sion—questions which appeared to her as devoid of utility
as of decency, and which she could not answer without the
most painful reluctance. Her unwillingness to attend the
confessional having been noticed by her parents, she candidly
disclosed the cause, stated her reasons for not wishing to go,
and alluded to the shameful and searching cross-examination
which, as a female, she was subjected to by a priest, but ne-
vertheless a man. The poor deluded people, however, gave
her to understand that she should reply to, without attempt-
ing to investigate the nature or object of her catechist's in-
terrogatories. But the girl continued to read, and new light
continued to break upon her mind, until on the Sunday pre-
vious to the last she determined, with a courage which no-
thing but an ardent longing after truth could inspire, to go
to the church and hear from the lips of a gospel and Protes-
tant minister, the " glad tidings" of what she so fervently
sought. Without the knowledge, we believe, of her parents
or Catholic neighbours, she went and returned; and pleased
with the simple and soul-refreshing purity of the gospel
faith as contrasted with the obscene ordeal to which she was
subjected in the confessional, she resolved to go again.—
Steady to this resolution, she was accordingly on Sunday
last proceeding again to church, carrying with her a prayer-
book, a present from the Protestant clergyman, when she was
suddenly set upon by her ignorant parents, who tore the
prayer-book from her, reviled her as a " turn-coat," and,
despitefully using her, ordered her back. The young wo-
man, notwithstanding, contrived to escape from them and the
crowd which was collecting, and succeeded in reaching the
church before they could intercept her. On returning from
church she was not so fortunate : a great part of the Catholic
congregation, after "receiving mass," proceeded towards the
church, and on the girl making her appearance, commenced
to hoot her, and yell in a most savage manner. Her brutal
pursuers continued to annoy her in this manner—some of
them, we believe, throwing dirt, and many of them display-
ing a strong disposition to lay hands upon her—until she
reached her mistress's house. which she succeeded in enter-
ing, not without much danger and difficulty. But the Sabbath
day's work did not close here. Disappointed at being de-
prived of their humane pastime—outrageous at her escape,
and the interruption to the pleasure which they promised
themselves in the prolonged torment of a " turn-coat," the
crowd gathered about the house (a strait one inhabited by
only two lone females) and in the most ferocious and violent
manner demanded that the young woman should be delivered
up to them, threatening, if their reasonable request should be
refused, to tear down the house. Upon this, some of the
respectable protestants of the town, knowing the unprotected
state of the inmates, and fearing, from the infuriated state of
the mob, that they would wreak their bigoted rage upon the
young woman, proceeded to the place, and by steady and de-
termined conduct succeeded in preventing outrage, which
otherwise seemed-inevitable. One of those protestants had
had his clothes torn by the crowd for his humane interference.
So bad and black a feeling, however, continued to be dis-
played by the Roman catholics against the young woman,
and many threats having been also expressed, the Rev. Mr.
Cuffe, protestant curate of the town—fearing to leave her in
a house where she could not be protected, generously deter-
mined to take- her into his own service. For this purpose he
he proceeded next day to the place where the young girl
lived, and, having engaged her as his servant, was bringing
her to his own residence, when her parents, attended by a
large and furious mob again met her, and she having clung
for security to Mr. Cuffe, attacked both, beat the girl and
dragged her away from her master, who was shamefully
abused, and had his spectacles broken while attempting to
save her from their brutality. The magistrates having been
presiding at the time at the petty sessions, Mr. Cuffe entered
the court, and demanded protection for himself and his ser-
vant; but that protection the magistrates, owing, we will
suppose, to an overhasty and erroneous view of the matter,
(for their characters as gentlemen would not justify us in
coming to more unworthy conclusion,) peremptorily refused,
and ordered that the young woman should be given up to her
parents. Mr. Cuffe, who deserves much credit for his
christian zeal and courage, complains of a want of courtesy
on the part of the justices. The young woman is now in the
custody of her parents; and a more cruel course of persecu-
tion, insult, annoyance, and outrage, than she is suffering
from those unnatural parents and bigoted neighbours, no
poor creature has ever undergone. Every person who enters
the house has unlimited license, and appears to think it me-
ritorious to strike her; while each act of insult or violence is
followed by the brutal demand, " Ha, will You go to mass
now?" ! Still, with a fortitude which is rarely to be found in
the class to which she belongs, she declares she never will—
that she will never kneel before a priest, nor submit to
another repetition of the indelicate examination which she
too often before endured in the confessional.