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Show AN "ESCAPED NUN" IN COURT. An "escaped nun" case has been up in the courts in London. In January, 1899; Miss Alice Jane Beatty delivered a lecture under the auspices of a branch of the Protestant Allinace on "My Imprisonment in a Convent." Mr. James Britten wrote an article on this lecture in the Jesuits' magazine, The Month. He called in question the accuracy ac-curacy of Miss Beatty's story of her "imprisonment" in a convent. This article was reprinted in pamphlet form by the Catholic Truth society. Miss Beatty threatened legal proceedings, and the Catholic Truth society, strange to say, agreed to sign an expression ex-pression of regret and pay Miss Beatty Beat-ty 100 as damages. "Some months later." -we are informed by the London Lon-don Tablet, "Miss Beatty came across an old copy of The Month containing a copy of the article which had been reprinted by the Catholic Truth society. soci-ety. She may well have felt that she had discovered a little gold mine. If the Truth society had paid 100 for merely reprinting the paper, what might she not expect to recover from those who first gave publicity to the offending words? Certainly at first sight it seemed to require a good deal of hardihood to attempt to justify an article for which the writer had already al-ready expressed regret and a society that had reprinted it had already paid exemplary damages. Under these difficult dif-ficult circumstances the owners of The Month took the wisest possible course, and placed themselves in the hands of - Mr. Philip Witham. Mr. Witham at once advised that there was no libel, and that if an action was brought it could be successfully and easily - defended. The action was brought, and it was laughed out of court. The jury found for the defendants defend-ants without thinking it necessary to leave the box." The verdict for the defendants is a complete vindication of the conduct of the nuns and others who were criti-v cised in her lecture. Miss Beatty had' suffered from illness and an operation had been performed by Dr. Culling-worth. Culling-worth. Rest was necessary for her recovery, re-covery, and the Catholics under whose care she was at St Vernoica's retreat, Chiswick Mother Veronica, Dr. At-teridge At-teridge and others did all they could to Insure It. As Mr. Justice Grantham Grant-ham observed, in summing up, the only motive by which they were actuated actu-ated was that of befriending her, and the talk of imprisonment in a convent was groundless. This case, as the Tablet remarks, is a good illustration of the fact that there are times when it is safer to fight than to run away, and that peace is sometimes more costly than war Catholic News. 1 |
