7 AUGUST 1869, Page 3

The Austrian Government is inquiring vigorously into the Cracow scandal.

According to the Univers, the nun Barbara Ubryk was certainly mad ; but the confessor, who revealed the secret while intoxicated, has since died, it is suspected of poison, the Superior of the Carmelites, who saw the nun in her cell, never remonstrated, and on search "instruments of torture," heavy 'crosses, crowns of thorns made of sharp nails, and girdles of the -same kind have been discovered. These stories, it must be remem- tered, come from Catholics, and though they are probably exaggerated, the crowns, &c., being intended for self-maceration, still the Concordat established one evil practice in Austria. No magistrate could enter a convent on summons without consent of a Bishop, but a Bishop's denunciation. of a magistrate was .always attended to. The convent therefore formed a separate State in itself, and unless the Bishop kept a strict watch, which even this Bishop, who has behaved excellently, did not do, almost any- thing might happen.