The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1855-04-25
Sflisteuanrolrs.
The Nunnery affair at Boston.
tFrom the Detroit Free Pressl

Professionalism in this country will soon
have need of inserting in its litany words
like these-From the follies and wicked
ness and atrocities of our own professed
friends, good Lord deliver us. The late de-
cent of q gang of know nothing members
of the Legislature of Massachusetts upon a
Catholic school near Boston, in the name OF
Professionalism, has, SO far as an individual
body of men could do it, degraded Protest
antism in the eyes of the universe. That
Protestantism will wash its hands Of it
that it will condemn and repadiate the act,
as a reproach that it cannot bear, and has
no disposition to bear we have already
evidence in commsnts of the Protestant
press.
The affair is the Legitimate results of in
Producing religious questions into popular
elections. Catholicism is complained Of
because of its intolerance, but the grand
idea of the new politico-religious party
which has sprung up to put down Catholi-
cism is intolerance. 1t tolerates nothing
but its own oath and its own edicts. Never
has there been such an act Of Catholic in
tolerance in America as that perpetrated on
behalf Of Protestantism near Boston, the
other day, at the command Of an arbitrary
know nothing majority. And this intoler-
ance was State matter. From the ballot
box, religious questions had been carried to
the halls of legislation; and legislative
majority, where religion is State matter,
never resist the temptation o: welding the
power of the State for the elevation of their
own creed, and the depression of another
creed. They did not resist in this case, but
exercised the power they had, not only in
the most arbitrary but in the most shame
fully indecent manner--in spirit which,
were it to become prevalent, would destroy
civil as certainly as it would religious lib
erty. This first aggression of one creed
upon another, aided by the civil power, may
we'll operate as warning to every class Of
re!igionists against ever welding clab
which may at any moment be turned upon
themselves.
The Boston Daily Advertiser, which, by
the way, is whig paper, furnishes some
further facts than those already published
by us respecting the proceedings at the Cath.
olic School:
ave ought to say that there was singl,
clothes press in the house which was no
opened by the committee. It was locked
and the superior did not happen to have the
key at hand at the moment when the party
about her reached il in their course. She
was about to procure it, but some of the gen
tlemen (by this time we suppose convinced
of the folly Of expecting to find hidden enor
mites in the closets) said that il would bs
unnecessary. Several of the party, never.
theless, ratified the door with an amusing
incredulity. We are glad to be able te
solve their doubts and remove their fears.
We can inform them and the public tha
that clothes press has since been opened il
the presence Of Protestant gentleman from
the city of Boston. and proved to contain
nothing but clean linen, neatly arranged up.
on the shelves. There is sink in the lower
part of the building where foul water is pour.
ed away, to be conducted to the drain
This sink is covered with lid, as is no,
unusal in houses where neatness PREVAILS
Several of the visitors in their march lifted
up this lid, looking with suspicious eyes, we
suppose, to find some immured nun.
X
In small chamber in the house, one Of
the boarders, young lady whose parents
we believe reside in the island Of Cuba, but
who is herself an American by birth, speak.
ing English perfectly,-lay in her bed i'll.
During the day the sister superior had been
applying teaches to this sufferer; and the
disagreeable operation was scarcely conclu.
ded, when the omnibuses drove up and the
numerous P arty alighted.
On receiving the party in the parlor be-
low, the sister superior informed them that
one of her pupils was i'll, lying in bed in
her chamber, and requested them to make
as little noise as possible in approaching
that part of the house. We need not tell
our readers how gentlemen of ordinary re-
fnement and dignity would have behaved
in such case; our business is to tell what
these visitors did. On reaching the cham
Der where the girl lay, the superior stated
the fact. Did the gentlemen" shrink back!
No, they pressed forward. One, it is be-
lieved, actually entered the room, and at all
events severalapproached within twelve in
ches of the bedside. The chamber is scarce.
ly larger than o closet, the bedstead is a
small iron structure and is placed close to
the door; SO that the inquisitors without ac-
tually crossing the threshold could carry
their presence into its privacy.
"Whsfwsre the feelings of that weak
and suffering girl o. these rude men hung
over her, We shall not attempt 70 describe
They were not content with the view eb-
tanned by the ordinary door. She saw two
mems heads peefing into the room By anoth-
er door, which was open, Il the front Of the
bed. To obtain this view these two ''gen-,
tlemen" must have leaned Over another bed