The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-19 00:00:00

POPISH TYRANNY.

[We take the following extraordinary statement from a
leading article in the Times of Friday, a paper not likely
to exaggerate what is likely to militate against the inte-
rests of the Papacy. It is another proof of the un-
changeable perfidy and tyranny of that awful system] :
The post of Dutch Minister at the Court of Turin had
been reputably filled for some years by a Protestant gen-
tleman of the name of Heldivier, who resided with his
family in that city, until, in consequence of some new
diplomatic arrangements on the part of the Dutch Go-
vernment, he received in the month of May last his let-
ters of recall. Some domestic anxiety had been occa-
sioned to this family by one of the daughters, a young
lady of ardent and independent temperament, who was
supposed to have formed an attachment fon a young
lawyer of the town, whose character and position did not
make him a suitable match for her. The departure was,
therefore, hastened ; but after M. Heldivier had pre-
sented his letters of recall to the king of Sardinia, he was
accidentally detained, by the illness of another of his
children, fora few days at an hotel at Turin. On the
Bth of June a display of fireworks took place in honour of
the birth of an heir to the Duke of Savoy. The ex-Mi-
nister and his wife were induced to attend this fke, and
very reluctantly to leave their daughter, who excused her-
self on some slight pretext, at home. They were absent '
but a short time ; yet in the interval the vague apprehen-
sions they seem to have entertained were fatally verified.
Their daughter had disappeared,—and for ever. At that
hour of the night she had quitted the hotel, alone and
without even a change of dress. The police were imme-
diately sent in search of the fugitive. The young
advocate, who was at first suspected to have a hand in the
elopement, was examined, but he proved himself to be
totally ignorant of the occurrence ; not a vestige of her
was to be discovered within the jurisdiction of the autho-
rities of the city ; but this absence of all evidence raised "a
strong presumption that she would only be found in the
precincts of some convent, more inaccessible than a
prison or a tomb.
Application was made to the Archbishop of Turin, as
the supreme ecclesiastical power of the kingdom, for
leave to pursue these inquiries, or for information, if he
possessed it, on the subject : for meanwhile the anxiety
of this unfortunate family had been raised to a pitch
which we shall not attempt to describe : and even the

public, startled by the actual disappearance of a young
lady, still a minor, the daughter of a gentleman who came
amongst them as the representative of a foreign Sove-
reign, took the liveliest part in their extreme distress.

The Archbishop thought fit to reply to this application,
that he had reason to believe that Mademoiselle Heldi-
vier had indeed sought refuge in a cenvent, but that he
was unable to state where she was at present. A few days
more, however, brought the whole transaction to light,
When the Archbishop of Turin asserted that he was
unable to state where this young lady was, he might have
stated, and he did afterwards acknowledge. that no per-
son living had so great a hand in the affair as himself.
For two years he had been carrying on a system of secret
communication with Mademoiselle Heldivier. Thwarted
by her parents in her attachment for the young advocate,
she had sought to avenge herself on them by transferring
her confidence from her father to this priest—taken from
her natural protectors to the jealous arm of the Church of
Rome. The Archbishop, unwilling to commit himself by
a written order, bad furnished his convert with one half
of a sheet of paper cut in a particular manner; the other
half was given to the Abbess of the Convent of Santa
Croce in Turin, with orders to receive the bearer of the
corresponding fragment at any hour of day or night.
Provided with these credentials, the fugitive found shelter
in the convent walls ; but, by the advice of the Arch-
bishop, her flight was deferred until her father, by the de-
livery of his letters of recall, had, as these clerical con-
spirators contend, surrendered those diplomatic rights
and privileges which would have been fatal to their
scheme.

The fact being thus ascertained, a strong effort was
made to bring the authors of this plot to account for
their action, and to yield up the young person whom they
had gotten into their possession. Setting aside the odious
secret acts by which th,s alleged conversion had been ef-
fected, and the irreparable injury done to an honourable
family, the case was one which demanded the strongest
remonstrances as an unparalleled invasion of the law of
nations and of the rights of diplomatic persons. A Dutch
subject, a minor, the child of a Dutch minister, is encou-
raged to quit her father's abode, received into a convent,
and there detained, not only by moral, but by actual
force, since every attempt even to search these convents
was successfully resisted by the clergy. The King was
personally appealed to by the distracted father ; his Ma-
jesty granted him an audience, but in answer to the
prayers and the demands of M. Heldivier that his daugh-
ter might be restored to him, the only reply which that
absolute Monarch dared to make was, that whatever
might be his own opinion on the subject, if he presumed
to interfere with the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the con-
vents, he should be excommunicated ! Such an answer
on such an occasion might have been expected from a
Philip 11. of Spain; and such powers as are thus recog-
nized and established fall little short of those of the In-
quisition. The principle contended for on behalf of the
Church of Rome is this—that any child having completed
'the age of 12 years may, for any cause, motive, or pretext,
throw off the parental authority, and fling itself under the
protection of the Church. If the child be a Protestant,
so much the better, since, while it abjures its filial duties,
it abandons its religious faith ; but whether Catholic or
Protestant, the protection of the Church thus sought and
thus given is absolute and inviolable.

There are few countries now in Europe or the world
where such a doctrine as this would not be demolished by
the ordinary notions of civil rights and of justice. But
the dominions of the King of Sardinia are one of those
countries. In vain did Mr. Abercromby, our own intel-
ligent minister at the court of Turin, and Baron Mortier,
the representative of France, protest against so moderate
a principle, especially when applied to the children of
foreigners accidentally or officially residing in Piedmont.
In vain did they represent, that M Heldivier, as a diplo-
matic person, hadlan incontestible right to quit the coun-
try in peace, taking with him all his family. The inex-
orable grasp of the infallible church prevail: d. The King
of Holland appears to have taken this outrage upon the
family of his minister with a most unbecoming indifference
and pusillanimity ; and Mademoiselle Heldivier remains
in the convent of Santa Croce, where she has formerly
abjured the Protestant heresies, and will probably take
the veil on the completion of her noviciate.
We have no wish to draw any excessive or unjust infer-
ences from this strange occurrence, which seems to be-
long not only to another country but to another age; but
it exhibits an awful picture of what the uncontrolled
power of the Romish clergy may still dare to effect, and a
humiliating example of a government which has allowed
the ties of private right and public law to be broken asun-
der, because it is itself a victim to the worst form of bi-
gotry, and the most servile subjection to spiritual op-
pression.