" appeared in the papers for two days, and I was informed that the reporter in court made light of it. At length, on the third day, a report did appear in all the papers, highly coloured in its tone, in which, among other inaccuracies, the witness Hinchley was apparently represented as giving testimony on oath, whereas he was not sworn. The next day a leading journal took the matter up in a prominent article; founded an argument upon the notion, which the police report had favoured, that Mr. Weale was a priest (the fact being that he was not even an ecclesiastic), and used a great deal of language calculated in the highest degree to inflame the public mind. The mistake as to Mr. Weale's profession was immediately contradicted from authority; but as the contradiction did not appear for two days, time was given to circulate the untruth, with irritating comments, in all the Sunday papers, the advertising placards of which drew public attention to the subject in this as in other neighbourhoods. The statement as to Mr. Weale being a priest, often as it has been contradicted, has been reproduced in a Sunday paper even since his trial. The effect of all this agitation was, of course, to stimulate the prosecution, and to produce large subscriptions towards the expense of conducting it. For this purpose, too, a meeting was got up in the borough. The extent and virulence of the feeling will appear from the four specimens which I send (A. B. C. D.) of the anonymous letters which poured in upon the clergy of this church on the days immediately following the appearance of the newspaper articles of which I have spoken, and founded, as will be seen, upon the first of them. I have sent these letters as they are, because, as will be seen, the language used by them is too shocking to be even transcribed. They contain the most abominable charges, and threaten bodily injury. I beg attention especially to the postscript of that marked D. These letters will serve to shew what kind of influences were at work to urge on the prosecution, in which I have every reason to believe the parochial authorities were most unwilling to engage. "But indeed the learned judge himself bore witness in his charge to the jury to the prevalence of such a feeling, and manifested (I am sure with the best and kindest intention) his apprehension that the case might be, or had been, prejudiced by it. 66 Here, too, I am led to notice another observation of the learned judge, bearing intimately upon the subject of this prejudice. The learned judge remarked that, whereas in ordinary cases the assent of the parents would be necessary to the successful prosecution of the suit, in this, for 'reasons which might be guessed,' that consent was not forthcoming, and need not be required. He alluded to 'peculiar circumstances in this case,' &c. If the learned judge possibly intended to suggest that some ecclesiastical influence or other had been used in order to deter the parents from prosecuting, I am bound to declare (always as upon my oath), and I do accordingly declare, in every sense of which the words are capable, that there are two, and two only, priests attached to this mission, of whom I am the senior; that for myself, I have never either directly or indirectly, nor (to the 66 best of my knowledge and belief) has my colleague, said a single word to either parent of the boy Farrell of a nature to deter, or dissuade, or discourage them from the prosecution of Mr. Weale; that as to the father of the boy, I never, to my knowledge, even saw him, and that I never spoke to the mother but once, which was on the evening of the 25th of last July (four days after the assault), when she visited me to complain of the treatment she had received in being 'called a brute by the magistrate.' Upon that occasion I saw her in company with two other gentlemen, who could attest that, while I used no word to increase her exasperation, neither did I say a syllable against any course which she and her husband might have wished to adopt, though in fact she declared their resolution to do nothing. Reverting now to the case itself. The boy John Farrell was taken within four days after the flogging to Mr. Clifton, a distinguished surgeon residing at 38 Cross Street, Islington, who pronounced the injuries upon the boy's person to be so trifling as not to justify any prosecution of Mr. Weale. It was the party interested in the prosecution who took the boy to Mr. Clifton. Mr. Clifton, moreover, has since stated that he has frequently known boys to be far more severely flogged than John Farrell in the Protestant school of this parish, with which he was once connected, without any complaint of severity having been made. Moreover, Mr. Hutchison, one of the medical gentlemen employed by the parochial authorities of Islington, was also consulted on the side of the prosecution as to the state of the boy, and refused to give any opinion. There are other medical gentlemen usually employed by the parish who were not consulted upon the boy's case. The only medical testimony given on the trial was that of the witness Huddlestone, a surgeon not known in this neighbourhood, who was not properly consulted at all, but being, as appears, on terms with Hinchley (vide an advertisement in the Times of September 25th, 26th, or 27th), volunteered an examination of the boy on July 29th, eight days after the flogging. Mr. Clifton has declared to me, in company with another gentleman (whose address I send), that Huddlestone's evidence is in complete disagreement with the result of his own examination of the boy four days previously; and although, having been consulted on the other side, he will not at present give me a certificate to this effect, yet he is ready to certify to it, if his evidence would turn the scale in favour of Mr. Weale's release. "But further; on Saturday, the 26th of July (i. e. five days after the flogging, and three days before Huddlestone's examination of the boy), I took the boy Farrell, first to Dr. Charles James Fox, of 30 New Broad Street, and subsequently, in Dr. Fox's company, to Mr. John Hilton, resident in the same street, surgeon of Guy's Hospital, both of whom conjointly examined the boy in my presence, from head to foot, at Mr. Hilton's house (Dr. Fox having previously examined him at his home), and declared separately and together, that the discoloration on the lower part of the back was not, in their judgment, caused by an instrument at all, but by the hand (which the schoolmaster had never used upon the boy); and in this respect I should observe that their evidence is corroborated by Mr. Clifton. With regard to a scratch which appeared on the boy's leg, Dr. Fox has a distinct recollection of his having said that it was produced by the whip of a cab or omnibus driver, and the same thing was said previously by the boy to others in my presence. Both Dr. Fox and Mr. Hilton agreed in pronouncing that the injuries, however occasioned, were not serious. The boy was all the time in perfect health, and returned to the school as usual the morning after the day of Mr. Weale's apprehension, which was the day of the alleged assault. "Both Dr. Fox and Mr. Hilton have since declared to me that they could have completely contradicted Huddlestone's medical evidence, had they been called. They were both subpoenaed, and in court. "It may seem strange-and I can account for the fact no otherwise than by supposing that it was felt impossible to contend against a deep and extensive prejudice- that facts so material to the case as those which I here vouch, were not produced at the trial. The whole case was laid before the legal adviser, several witnesses (including Dr. Fox and Mr. Hilton) were subpoenaed and in court, when, to the astonishment of Mr. Weale's friends, the defence was virtually abandoned, and not a single witness was called on his behalf." Such has been the treatment of Mr. Weale at the hands of the boasting, vain-glorious law of England. And we may rest assured that, as time goes on, the history of Catholicism in this country will present one continued series of such outrages. Not one of us is safe. Labouring men, tradesmen, gentlemen, and ladies too, going about our daily duties, ministering to the poor, the sick, or the miserable,-we may say some little word, or take some trivial step, which will be caught up by the enemies of our faith, misrepresented, and made the ground for a sham trial, or a violent mob-attack. Catholics of Great Britain, then, we say again, trust none but your God! Your friends are few, your enemies are legion. The devil is trembling for his own, and he will spare no means to wreak his vengeance on those who are undermining his power. We are fallen on wonderful times; and the persecutions to which our forefathers were subject, and from which we have had a brief breathing-time, are being renewed. From small beginnings they may go on advancing to a ferocity which now we can scarcely realise. Even as it is, while popular feeling remains thus exasperated, there is not one of us who, while silently and humbly performing his duties as a Christian, may not find himself suddenly transformed into a confessor for Christ's sake. 85 SHORT NOTICES. Dr. Kenrick, the Bishop of Philadelphia, has added to his many claims on the thanks of his fellow-Catholics a completion of his version of the New Testament (Dunigan, New York). It is impossible in a brief notice to discuss its merits in detail; but its utility to the general reader of Scripture may be estimated from the character of the learned author's translation of the four Gospels. M. Gondon, of the Univers, has published an English version of his spirited and clever Letter to Mr. Gladstone, in answer to his Two Letters to Lord Aberdeen (Dolman), which will be read with considerable profit by all who feel an interest in the conduct of the King of Naples, and the recent violent attacks upon him. The Lenten Manual and Companion for Passion Time and Holy Week, translated and compiled by Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Halifax (Dunigan), contains instructions, prayers, and meditations, from Bourdaloue, Berthier, Povion, and by Dr. Walsh himself. They will be most useful to English as well as American Catholics. Mr. Maclachlan's clever pamphlet, The Rock (Dolman), is a reply to a Scotch Presbyterian's attack on the doctrine of Papal infallibility. Mr. Maclachlan is an energetic and vigorous writer, with a keen sense of the follies and impertinences of men like Dr. Lee, on whom he executes very summary justice. Mr. Appleyard's Welsh Sketches (Darling) contain a great deal of curious matter on a subject little known to ordinary readers. They are worthy of a nook in the Catholic's historical library, notwithstanding the unique opinions of their author. The genius of Mr. Cannon, author of Poems Dramatic and Miscellaneous (Dunigan), is unequal to tragedy. His shorter poems are pleasing and devout. The author is a good Catholic; but the sentiment of such verses as "A Sunday in the Country" is scarcely what it should be. We should call attention to one of the last-published Clifton Tracts, for distribution at the present season: Christmas Day; whose Birthday is it?" It is one of the most important yet issued. The Tract on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin is also excellent. "How Antichrist keeps Christmas," one of the early Tracts, should also not be forgotten just now. The second volume of Miss Strickland's Queens of Scotland (Blackwood), completes the life of Margaret of Lorraine, and contains that of Margaret Douglas. We shall return at length to the series as soon as the next volume, which brings Miss Strickland to Queen Mary Stuart, is ready. Those who would see Protestantism with the cap-and-bells should open the Rev. Robert Montgomery's Church of the Invisible (Darling). Mr. Montgomery probably has a meaning, at least sometimes, and when he writes prose; but the most intelligibly expressed idea we have been able to discover is, that Popery comes from the Devil. As to his "poetry," with which his prose is largely illustrated, were Mr. Montgomery a critic as well as a maker of books, he would term it "blazing bombast" and "sounding sentimentalism." Yet this author is the Dante of the "religious world." THE PANTHEON. THE following is the history of the desecrated church just restored by Louis Napoleon to the service of religion. It was designed by J. G. Soufflot in 1757, but the first stone of one of the pillars of the dome was not laid by King Louis XV. until the 6th of September, 1764. The principal façade is imitated from the Pantheon of Rome. The church was dedicated to St. Geneviève. The National Assembly, on the 4th of April, 1791, changed the destination of the building, by decreeing that it should become the burial-place of Frenchmen illustrious by talent, virtue, or public services. All the signs which characterise a religious edifice were in consequence removed, and replaced by symbols of Liberty and the Republic; and the inscription in bronze letters was placed on the front, "Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie reconnaissante." The honours of the Pantheon were awarded to Mirabeau, who died on the 2d of April, 1791. By decrees of the 11th of July and 16th of October of that year, the same honours were conferred on Voltaire and Rousseau. In virtue of a decree of the 21st of September, 1793, the body of Marat was transferred to the Pantheon, and that of Mirabeau was withdrawn. But after the affair of the 9th Thermidor, an 11. (July 27, 1794), the remains of Marat were taken from the Pantheon and thrown into the common sewer of Montmartre. The National Convention, on the 20th Pluviose, an III. (February 8, 1795), decreed that the honours of the Pantheon could only be accorded to a citizen ten years after his death. Napoleon, by decree of the 20th of February, 1806, enacted that the Pantheon should be restored to public worship, but still retain the destination fixed by the National Assembly. The inscription, however, "Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie_reconnaissante,' was only re-established after the accession of King Louis Philippe. Under his Majesty considerable works were undertaken, and at this moment the building is entirely finished, with the exception of placing bronze doors in the naves. The cost of the edifice altogether has exceeded 25,000,000 fr. Levey, Robson, and Franklyn, Great New Street, Fetter Lane. |