The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-01-13 00:00:00

REVOLT OF TIIE SISTERS OF CHARITY.

A complete insurrection of the " Sisters. of Charity,". an
order of reliqieuses who in France devote themselves to attend-
ance upon the sick, took place at thegreat hospital' of the Hotel
Dieu, at Lyons, on the 314 ult. , The following details are
given by the Censeer de Lyon of the Ist of January :—,
" It is now some tine since a sister of the Hotel Dieu, found
,„rtui;l; of has'ing disobeyed the injunctions of the directors of
this establishulent, vg7..e.sentenced to quit the house. The other
sisters declared.that tn. pe:gsliment was unjust, and that they
would oppose its execution by vwery?..i.cans in their poWer, even
-to actual resistance. They. kept /lair 57d, . Yesterday, at
six in the evening, a commissary of .pon..P., nPned Bard Oz,
appeared at the, Hotel Dien to take the refractory' sisiCl into
custody, as she had refusedvoluntarily to
.quit the.house.
had'scarcely stated the object of his mission when he was sur-
rounded by the sisterhood, abused, and even assaulted by them.
The warlike sisters did. not stop here, but sounded the tocsin
of the Hotel Dieu, and called. loudly . for assistance. For two
hours the disorder was at its height, and. the unhappy patients
might ,well hare imagined that the last day..was come. At
length M. Bardoz was enabled to effect, his escape, but without
having secured the criminal. sister, and the field, of battle re-
mained in possession of the insurgents." •
The Courrier de •Lyou contains long details concerning this
singular insurrection. It states that although the tocsin rang
by the sisters of charity .was only sounded for a minute or two,
in a very short space of time a crowd of from S(X) to 600 persons
assembled on the quay of the Rhone,and in the Hospital-square,
in the idea that a tire. had, broken put in the building. ." Hap-
pily," adds the Courrier, " the doors were. closed; and the mob
soon dispersed at the voice of the porter, who assured them- that
it was a false alarm. The disturbunce which the entrance of a
crowd of.people by night- in .such a scene of -confusion would
have occasioned-may be readily imagined. While one part of
the rebels made head against the commissary
.of police and his
agents,; and .while nthers sounded the tocsin,. a sister, named
sodium!, rushed into. the' ward occupied by the female fever
patienti,...aud cried out, Getup, all of you; your sisters are be-
ing, taken away ; your sisters -are. being massacred l' . What
rouiflave been the.effect of these words on the minds of per
.sous weakened 'by pain and sickness I "f he consequence was
nearly fatal to many. ' Finally, the commissary was unable to
accomplish his object, and the sister sought fur escaped-from the
clutches, being concealed in. a cupboard."
The ,Reparate.urde Lyon, a, leg. inmate journal, published also
an account of the :affair, ad concludes it thus :—" The sisters,
proud of their succeis, barricaded themselves in the court-yard,
lit a large fire, and bivouacked till day on the field of battle,
ready to repel any new. aglression. The report was circulated
that two priseners were .made by the belligerent sisters, but it
does not appear to be true. It has been decided at the prefec-
ture that the affair shall remain for the present in state quo until
the return of the prefect, who is immediately expected, and to
whom a despatch has been forwarded by an.estafette."