Daily American organ., 1856-05-03
WHOLE NO. 46s
From the Baltimore Clipper.
The Case Of Mary Ann King.
GIRL REMOVED FROM NORWOOD SuSSrRY 10
yRAScE--HABKAs CORPUS USELESS.

GIRL REMOVED FROM NORWOOD NUNNERY TO
FRANcE--HABKAs CORPUS USELESS
The point on which the report Of our Convent
committee turned, was the power of habeas COR
pus. The Belfast News Letter publishes the case
of Mary Ann King, which shows what perfect
folly IL is to suffer such prisons and such robbery
because you might possibly deliver the victim.
just as well throw your child into river filed
with sharks, because you might possibly deliver it,
or turn lamb out among wolves, because il might
possibly elude their vigilance If the parent Is
mad that would give up child to the shark or the
wolf, just as inhuman, .deluded, and insane. IL
that parent who would give up daughter to go
into prison OF unmarried licentious priests. The
thing Is as wicked as it Is absurd
The Belfast News lie ter, of March 10th 1874
says:
We regard the recent extension of nunneries In
connexion with the revt lations brought to light of
the interference Of Romish priests In the disposal
OF private property--arr interference in no few
cases grossly Illegal and even criminal, and OBJ
viously designed for the endowment of bachelor
directory over scelibate female asso.iations--we
look on the revival of this most pernicious Of All
Romish stratagems as one of the worst signs of the
times, and as one OF the most menacing dangers to
which society, in regard to its dearest privileges
aid liberties Is exposed. We shall lend our aid,
as far az we are enabled to do So to the exposure
OF this nsidous prowler, which progresses through
Ing for It's victims, whom when found it first fasci-
mates by its sic, caress and wheedng purr, and
then springs upon with hungry teeth aud pieIciIg z
claws. We must not be blind 10 the successive
gradaons of the conventual systt m from it's appa-
rently qui T. innocent and ho, cradle IL the heart
Of Protestant town like Belfast, 70 that trenien-
dous structure of iiquity 70 which il once before
expanded, as we know from Romish historians
themselves. We must take care that our fresides
be not invaded by spies that our little ones are
not spirited away from our arms, that the orphans
who depend upon W are not snared--that our wills
are not tampered with-and that our deatbbeds
not insulted by the intrusion of priests who de-
sire to brand our memory with tbs stigma of pos
thumous perversion.
Another case OF kidnapping novice for a con-
vent came before Mr.. Justice Crompten, in the
Judges Chambers, London, few DAYS ago, on
application for hab as corpus to produce the
body Of a child supposed to be detained in a num-
merry. The child is girl named Mary Ann King,
and the nunnery is the Norwood Convent The
report says:
"The affidavit of the mother who Is Roman
Catholic stated that when her husband died, in
1850, she consented to place her child, then ten
years OF age, in the nunnery at Norwood for two
years; that she had been in the habit of seeing her
child from time to time, but WREN the two years
had expired, there was an intimation of her being
sent abroad, to which the mother strongly object
ed, and the child also said she had no wish to 90
away from her mother. A request was then lnude
to allow the child TO remain six months longer to
which the mother consented. The child, after
that, saw her mother in the presence of a nun
and at length, when the mother began to express
her determination TO take the child home abe was
only allowed to see her through lattice-work or
grazing, and at length the mother was refused TO
see her daughtei at all
I "The latter end of last year. the mother met one
OF the priests, and she asked him concerning her
daughter, ard the priest informed her thar her
child had been sent TO France SOME months since.
The mother, in great distress of mind applied 10
magis rate; but he said he could not assist her
She was then recommended to apply to her attor-
ney, Mr.. Clarke, who went with her to the con-
vent, and demanded her danghtsr. The nuns re-
piled that she was not there, but had been sent to
France twelve months previously; and in reply to
questions, the nuns said they neither knew where
she was, how she vent who took her. or to whose
care she was confded; nor did they ke,p p any reg
lister of the particulars of sending away girls from
the nunnery."
The able counsel who moved for the writ Mr.
Cock Evans) urged that If this ha6eas corpus was
not effectual, the law of this country was blank
to any parent under similar circumstances. The
writ was, OF course, granted.
Now, what piece Of social history is herel The
priests and priestesses Of Rome Represented by the
male and female directory Of the Norwood Nun
merry, against poor mother whose child they have
stolen from her. IN the lace Of British law and Pro-
tcstant government! The mother wants her little
girl back to her home to comfort her old age
wants her out of the circle of the spiritual spell
which blanches her cheek, corrodes her heart,
dulls her intellect, and deadens her sympathiss
with nature and that world Of fancy, feeling love-
and hope, which no girl of fifteen, even though
kidnapped at ten, will conscientionsly say she Ia
unprepared to enjoy. For years she has seen the
daughter Of her heart, now and then, under the
ebo nf fho lSl,..
line Of the hard convent eye. At length, when her
visits became more troublesome, and her complaint
more importunate, the mother and her girl could
only see one another through the nunnery CRATE
they could not even embrace each otheri
Why this is more like romance Of Monk Lewis
Maturin, than the reality of an incident in the
middle Of the 10th century and in the heart Of
free, happy, Protestant England where the fetteis
tall from the limbs of the fugitive negro; where
the very brute beast has claim upon the laws for
justice against its torturerl But worse was to
come, far worse, than even this spectacle Of
ther gazing at her entrapped child through the
bars OF prison grsting One day, this poor wo-
man met one of the priests" who it spp+ +ars are
the crstodians and disciplinariaus of the ladies' in
the Norwood Nnnnery, and from him she learned
that her child had been sent to France. Why to
France? Was il to Paris? What business have
priests to send youpg English girls away from their
parents to France, to all countries?
We know, TO the shame Of our country, that
young Frenchwomen are often brought over 10
England under false pretexts, and for wicked de-
signs and we should be glad to hear il explained
why young English girls should, even BY priests
aud superioresses, be exported to France. Not
even the nuns could, or would, disclose TO the sf
ficted mother wkere the girl was sent, how sls
was sent, or who accompanied her; and IL appesrs
the priest was also conveniently silent on this cub
ject of such awful interest TO mothers heart.
This is terrible. 1t transceDds the 6ctions OF the
imagination II recalls the times of the Borgias