The Auful Disclosures of Maria Monk, is a reprint from
an American publication. Its direct object is to criminate the Ca- tholic priesthood of Canada; its indirect purpose, perhaps, to lower the Catholic religion. Taking the insinuations and statements as they stand in the volume, the Romish clergy in Canada avail themselves of the power which confession bestows, to corrupt the minds of female children, in order to render them victims of their lust. The schools attached to the Catholic convents are made in- struments for converting heretical scholars, so far as is practicable without giving rise to suspicion. The Canadian nunneries by in- ference, the Hotel Dieu nunnery at Montreal by distinct charges, are represented as schools and theatres of every vice and every crime. Promiscuous intercourse, either willingly or by force, takes place between the priests and the recluses; systematic in- fanticide is regularly practised to destroy the illegitimate off- spring,—the children, after strangulation, being thrown into an open receptacle of the nunnery cellars, and destroyed by quick- lime; when any nun excites suspicion or becomes troublesome she is made away with,—in the case falling under MARIA MONK'S notice, by smothering between two beds—in others, we are to un- derstand, by the knife, or any convenient mode. After such things, it is needless to mention trifling peccadilloes, or matters of discipline,—such as a gag, an imprisonment in the narrow under- ground cells, or picketing with the head downwards. Into the truth or falsehood of these monstrous and improbable charges, we, of course, cannot enter. It must, however, be ob- served, that MARIA MONK is a character whose unsupported testimony could not be credited in any court of justice upon the most indifferent matter. According to her own showing, she clandestinely left the convent, when a novice, in consequence of a reprimand which displeased her. She then married, against the advice of her friend ; and in three months time, either left her husband or was left by him. Concealing this fact, she applied for readmission ; raising the money, usually required, under va- rious false pretences,—all frauds of supererogation, as the Supe- rior was willing to dispense with the fee. When in the convent, she unresistingly complied with all its practices ; and only left it upon a sudden impulse, to saVe the life of the child with which she was pregnant. Arriving at New York, she gave birth to an infant ; and having been converted to the Protestant faith, has given her confessions to the world.
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