The Express. — 1846-11-10 (London, England)

SHEPHERD.—lnspeetor Morgan, T division, informed the magistrate that the Rev. James O'Neal', the director of the Asylum of the Good Shepherd, in the Fulham-road, Hammersmith, with the Rev. Messrs. Moore, Kelly, Conway, Catholic clergymen, were in attendance for the purpose of denying the truth of the statement made in that court on Monday, the 2nd instant, by a young female of the name of Elizabeth Doolan, who was charged with having threatened to destroy herself by drowning in that asylum on the Saturday previous, a report of which statement had ap poured in the morning journals of Monday.—Elizabeth Doolan was present. —Rev. Mr. Moore said he would commence the contradiction, as he was the first person named in the report which appeared in the public papers, and by which he found that the girl had stated that, as she was proceeding down the street, at Ratcliffe-hiehway, to • Protestant Institution for Magdalene, in the Blackfriars-road, she was accosted by a Roman Catholic clergyman of the name of Moore, who, seeing that she was an Irishwoman, spoke to her, and, on her telling him where she was going, persuaded her not to go among Protestants, but to go home with him, and that he would keep her for • fortnight or so, until he could get her into a convent. Now he begged most emphatically and solemnly to declare that all that statement was a falsehood. He did not meet her in the street, as she had said. The real facts were, that, about a fortnight before she was admitted into the asylum, she presented herself for the first time to him in the Catholic chapel in Virginia-street, Ratcliffe, of which he was the minister, where he was officiating between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, when she stated to him that she was an unfortunate Irish girl, who had been an inmate for three months of a house of ill-fame, from which she had run away. She also represented herself as from the county Cork, and said that her father and mother were Catholics, and that she had been brought up as a Catholic by the nuns of some religious establishment in that part of Ireland, that as it was her intention to reform, she wished him to place her in some establishment conducted by nuns, like where she had been educated, and out of humanity to her he undertook to take her case into consideration, and he gave her the means of providing herself with a lodging for that night, and promised to get her into the Asylum of the Good Shepherd,- for which purpose he wrote a letter to the Rev. J. O'Neill, who was, however, absent in the country. lie then provided her with a lodging for a fortnight, when he sent a second letter to Rev. .1. O'Neal', and she was then admitted. He did not even personally know where she lodged during the fortnight ; and she had said in her statement that she was three days at his house, overrated his kindness, as she had not been there at all.—Mr. Clive said the rev, gentleman's statement then amounted to a direct denial of the truth of the girl's statement —Rev. J. O'Neill said he received the second letter sent him by Mr. Moore, having been in the country when the first was sent, and he gave her an admission into the asylum, but it was not true that he sent her there in a cab. The tenth was, that the TAD from the asylum happened to be at his house with clean linen at the time, and he gave her into the care of the religieuses who were with it, who took her in the Tan. He had two of the penitents from the asylum, who were Protestants, present in the court, who would testify to the kind treatment they there received, and who would also state that the girl Dubin while there, professed great indignation at the Protestants who were in the asylum ,• and that, so far from their having been forced to attend confession, they were not called upon to do so. While in the as she had spoken of suicide and its consequence with the greatest levity and ridicule, and her manner was such towards the nuns, as to cause her ultimately to be discharged from the asylum. The nuns were ladies of educe. tion' who have consecrated their lives and fortunes to the care and reformation of the unfortunate class of person to which the girl belonged, and afterwards to procuring for them respectable situations. The explanation now given, would, doubtless, make the girl's conduct still more vile and odious in the eyes of the public.—The two penitents then called forward, stated that they were Protestant inmates of the asylum, and had every reason to say that the girl's statement was not correct.—Mr. Clive asked the girl Donlan what she said to the contradiction of her statement, and she replied that her statement was true.—Mr. Clive said it was clear to him that it was a story made up for the occasion of her being brought to the Court. He had no doubt but that the contradiction of its truth would go forth to the public, and that it would make the ' same impression which it had made on his mind ; viz., that her statement was all a Untie of falsehoods.—The deputation thanked the magistrate for the opportunity he had given them of contradicting it ; and as they withdrew, the girl Doolan said to them, " Never mind, old Priests, I am ready to make oath to the truth of what I have said." She was then taken back to the workhouse.