The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-03-04 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

POPERY IN AMERICA.

We take the following most extraordinary narrative
from'an American paper, the Albany Transcript, which
appears to borrow it from the New York Journal of
Cennnerce. The details here given are, almost beyond
the bounds.of credibility, but we are assured that every
word is true ! Can we wonder, then, at the crimes and
demoralization of tile -Roman Catholics. of Ireland, when
under the sanction of their religion we 'see such profli-
gacy and horrid enormities ?

"Aweut. DISCLOSURES, by Maria Monk." —A book of 231
pages, 18 mo., -under, this title, has been published in this city
by Howe and Bates, 63. Chatham-street, which, if a true nar-
rative, and there is strong interr.al evidence of its being so,
throws "Six Months in a Convent" very far into the shade.
It purports to be a statement by Miss Monk, "of her sufferings
during a residence of five years as a novice, and two years as a
black nun, in the Hotel Neu Nunnery, at Montreal." This
woman, it seems, is, or has recently been, an inmate of the
New York Alms House, having taken refuge there after her
escape from the Nunnery; and ere long giving birth to a child!
She. represented herself and all the other nuns in.that Convent
to, have been continually subject to the approaches. of the
priests, whose licentiousness exceeded all bounds: She details
inauv instances of the murder of the offspring of the nuns in
the Convent, some of which she witnessed with her own eyes.
In some instances nuns themselves were murdered. The fol-
lowing is her account of a scene.of this description : •
. On day the superior sent for me and several other nuns, to
receive her commands at a particular room. We found the,
bishop and some priests with her; and speaking in an unusual
tone of fierceness and authority, she said, "Go to the room for
the examination of conscience, and drag St. Frances up stairs."
Nothing more was necessary than this unusual command, with
the tone and manner which accompanied it, to excite in me the
most gloomy anticipations. It did not strike me as strange that
St. Frances should be in the room to which the superior directed
us. It was' an apartment to which we were often sent to pre-
pare for the communion, and to which we voluntarily went,
whenever we felt any compunctions which our ignorance of
'duty, and the misinstructions we received inclined us to seek
,relief from self-reproach. Indeed. I had seen her there a little
before 1 What terrified me was, Ist, the superior's angry man-
ner; 21, the expression she used being a French term, whose
peculiar use I had learnt in .the Convent; and whose meaning
is rather softened 'when translated into dray; .3d, the place to
,vhiCh we were directed to take the interesting young nun, and
the persons assembled there as I supposed to condemn her.
My fears were such, concerning the fate that awaited her, and
my horror at the idea that she was in some way to be sacrificed,
'that I would have given any thing to be allowed to stay where
I was. „But l feared the consequences of disobeying the supe-
rior, and proceeded with the rest towards the room for the exa-
mination of conscience.

The room to which we were to proceed from that, was in the
second story, and the place Of many a, scene of a shameful
nature.—lt is sufficient for me to say, after what I have said in
other parts of this book, .that things had here occurred which
made me regard the place with the greatest disgust. Saint
Prances had appeared melancholy for some time. I well knew
that she had cause, for she had been repeatedly subject to trials
Which I need not name—our common lot. When we reached
the room where we had been bidden to seek her, I entered the
duor, my companions standing behind me, as the place was so
small as hardly to hold five persons at a time. The young nun
was standing alone, near the middle of the room; she was pro.;
bably about twenty, with.light hair, blue eyes, and a very fair
complexion. I spoke to her in a compassionate voice, but at
the same time with such a decided manner, that she compre-
hended my full meaning.
"Saint 'Prances, we are sent for you."

Several others spoke kindly to her, but two addressed her very
harshly. The poor creature turned round with a look of meek-
ness, and without expressing any unwillingness or fear, without
,even speaking a word, resigned herself to our hands. The tears
came into my eyes. I had not a, moment's doubt that she con-
sidered her fate as sealed; and was already beyond the fear of
death. She was conducted, or rather hurried to the staircase,
which was near by, and then seized by her limbs and clothes,
and in fact almost dragged up stairs,, in the sense the superior
had intended. I laid my own hands upon her—l took hold. of
her too—more gently indeed than some of the rest; yet I en-
couraged and assisted them in carrying her. I could not avoid
it. My refusal would not have saved her, nor prevented her
being carried up; it would only have exposed me to some severe
punishment, as I believe my companions would have seized the
first opportunity to complain of me.
• All the way up the staircase Saint Frances spoke not a word,
nor made the slightest resistance. When we entered with her
the room to which she was ordered, my heart sunk within me.
The bishop, the lady superior, and five priests, viz. Bonin,
Richards, Savage, and two others, I now ascertained, were as-
sembled for her trial, on some charge of great importance.
When we lad brought our prisoner before them, Father'
Richards began to question her, and she made ready, but calm,
replies. I cannot pretend to give a connected account of what
ensued, my feelings were wrought up to such a pitch, that I
k dew not what I did, or what to do. I was under a terrible
apprehension that if I betrayed my feelings which almost over-
came me, I should fall under the displeasure of the cold-blooded
persecutors of my poor innocent sister; and this on the one
hand, with the distress I felt for her on the other, rendered me
almost frantic. ' As soon as I entered the room, I had stepped
into a corner, on the left of the entrance, where I might parti-
ally sup ort myself by leaning against the wall, between the
i
door an window. This support was all that prevented me
from fa ling to the floor, for the confusion of my thoughts was
so great, that only a few of the words I heard spoken on either
side made any lasting impression upon me. I felt as if struck
by some insupportable blow i and death would not have been
more frightful to me. lam inclined to the belief, that Father
Richards wished to shield the poor prisoner from the severity of
her fate, by drawing from her expressions that might bear a
favourable construction. He asked, among other things, if she
was not sorry for what she had been overheard to say—for she
had been betrayed by one of the nuns—and if sbe would not
prefer confinement in the cells, to the
.punishment which teas
threatened her. But the bishop soon interrupted.him, and it
was easy to perceive that he considered her fate as sealed, and
was determined she should not escape. In reply to some of the
questions put to her, she was silent; to others I heard her voice
reply that she did not repent of words she had uttered, though
it had been reported by some of the nuns who had heard them,
that she still wished to escape from the convent; and that she
had firmly resolved to resist every attempt to compel her to the
commission of crimes which she 'detested. She added, that she
would rather die than cause the murder of harmless babes.

" That is enough, finish her!" said the bishop.

Two nuns instantly fell upon the young woman, and in obe-
dience to directions given by the superior, prepared to execute
her sentence.

She still maintained all the calmness and submission of a

lamb. Some of those who took
_part in this transaction, I be-

lieve, were'as unwilling as myself; but of others I can safely
say that I believed they delighted in it. Their conduct c?rtain-
ly exhibited a most blood-thirsty spirit. But, above all others
present, and above all other fiends I ever saw,'l think Saint
Hyppolite was the most diabolical.. She engaged in all the
horrid task with all alacrity, and assumed, from choice, the
most'revolting parts to be performed. She seized a gag, forced
it into the mouth of the poor nun, and; when it was fixed be-
tween her extended jaws so as to keep them open at their great-
est distance, took bold of the strap fastened at each end of the
stick, crossed them behind the helpless head of the victim, and
drew them tight through the loop prepared as a fastening.
The bed which had always stood in one pert of the room still
remained there ;'though the screen, which had been usually
placed. before it, and was made of thick muslin, with only a cre-
vice through which a person behind might look out, had been
folded upon its' hinges in the
,form of a NV, and placed in a
corner.• On the bed, the prisoner was laid with her face upward
and then bound with cords so that she could not move. In an
instant, another best was thrown upon her. One of the priests,
named Bonin, sprung like a fury: first upon it, and st...mped
upon it with all his force. He was speedily followed by the
nuns, until there was as many upon the bed as could find room,
and all did what they could, not only to smother her, but to
bruise her. Some stood up and jumped upon the For girl with
their feet, some with their knees, and others, in different ways,
seemed to seek bow they might best beat the breath out of her
body, and mangle it, without coming in direct contact with it or
seeing'the effect of their violence. During this time, my feel-
ings were almost too strong to be endured, I felt stupified, and
scarcely was conscious of what I did. Still, fear for myself re-
mained in a sufficient degree to induce me to some exertion,
and I attempted to talk to those who stood next, partly that I
might have au excuse for turning away from, the dreadful scene,
,After. the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, and when it was
,presumed that the sufferer had been smothered and crushed to
death, Father Bonin and the nuns ceased to trample upon.her,
and stepped from the bed. All was motionless and silent be-
neath it. •
They then began to laugh at such inhuman thoughts as oc-•
curred to some of them, rallying each other in the most un
feeling manner, and ridiculing me for the feelings.which 1 in
vain endeavoured to conceal, 'They alluded to the resignation
of our.rnurdered companion, and one of them tauntingly said,
"She would have made a good catholic martyr." • After spend-
ing some moments in such conversation, one of them asked if
the corpse should be removed. The superior said it had better I
remain a little while. After waiting a short time longer,- the
,feather bed was taken off, the cords unloosed, and the body •
taken by the nuns and dragged down stairs. was informed
that it- was taken into the cellar, and thrown unceremoniously
into the hole which I have already described, covered with a
great quantity of lime, and afterwards sprinkled with a liquid,
of the properties and name of which I am ignorant. This liquid
I have seen poured into the hole from large bottles, after the
necks were broken off, and had heard.that it is used in France
to prevent the effluvia rising from cemetries. •
'I did not soon recover from the shock caused by this scene;
indeed it still recurs to me with the most gloomy impressions.
The next day there was a melancholy aspect over every thing,'
and recreation time passed in the dullest manner; scarcely
any thing was said above a whisper.
I never heard much said afterward about Saint Frances.
The cruelties oftentimes practised upon the nuns, even when
murder was not committed, are represented to have been such
as to impair health and endanger life. Miss Monk gives the
names of many of the nuns, and many of the priests; and
relates other circumstances so minutely in regard to the struc-
ture and interionarrangements of the conveut, that it cannot
be difficult to prove whether, or not, she has ever resided within
its walls. If so, the only remaining question respects the cre-
dibility of her testimony. We suspect it will be found that
there is a great deal too much truth in the whole-of her narra-
tive.

DREADFUL FIRE IN A THEATRE-ONE HUN-
DRED AND TWENTY-SIX PERSONS BURNT.

ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. I7.—The North Bee contains a de-
tailed account of a dreadful accident which occurred, here on
Sunday, Feb. 14.
This, the first day of the holydays, was a day of of ;
at four in the afternoon, a fire broke out in Lahaman's thea-
trical booth, from a lamp which was hung too high setting fire
to a beam. In order to warn the public of.the danger, the cur-
tain was drawn up; eight wide doors were immediately thrown
open, and a great part of the audience escaped unhurt, the re-
mainder might have done the same, but those in the pit all'
crowded to a narrow passage, which was soon blocked up, those
who were thrown down were trodden underfoot, the roof fell
in and covered the crowd with firebrands; of above four hun-
dred persons who were in the booth, one hundred and twenty-
' one males and five females perished, in all one hundred and
twenty-Six. about ten more are severely injured, but hopes are
entertained of their recovery. All possible exertions were mad;
and the .einperor himself arrived with the first detachment of
firemen; '1 he thousands of persons who crowded the spot were
kept back by the presence of the emperor—by an awful sense
of the greatness of the disaster not the slightest disorder occur-
red.

The bodies which seemed to have some signs of life were con
veyed in sledges to the Admiralty, where every attention was
paid. The crowd in•silence opened a broad passage for the fire
engines and the sledges, anctat nightfall every thing had been
done that was po'ssible on such a lamentable occasion.

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rial Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Russia, and the
Emperors of Austria and China.
. . .

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