SECRET CONFESSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 192, 16 October 1866, Page 3

SECRET CONFESSION.

To the Editor of the Evening Mail. Sib, — In yonr issue of Saturday you have dealt pertinently with the letter ofthe Rev. A. M. Garin, in regard to tde point under discussion ; and . n tho opinion of one, at least, you have satisfactorily exhausted tho argument, juid asserted the worth of an unfettered newspaper in noticing current events, as well as tlie expressions of public opinion. Nevertheless, you appear not to have satisfactorily attacked ihe position, which his reverence manifestly, exultingly, arrogate--, in the terminating paragraph of his letter; hi whioh he endeavors to give to the private confession of a murderer, as well a. to the confessor, a dignity, an important, und a* public consequence, which they cannot, neither do either of them, deserve. What, is the worth of a murderer's confession, if it do not tend to the advancement of civil order and security, and the satisfaction ot those who have in any maimer assisted to bring him to his merited puni.dinient ? Has Stack's confession tended to advance any of these ends ? If he expressed his guiltiness to his superior, does the hitter's retention of his acknowledgment advance the ends of justice ? Is Stack's confessor free from moral blame by retaining the' horrible secret in his breast ? Ought he not to make it public to remove every doubt of having done wrong, from the mind of every ce, who assisted to pursue the monstrous criminal into a halter ? Any other confessor, than a Catholic, would have been pleased to announce the criminal's confessions of guilt, to assure his fellow-citizens they had not committed perjury in the verdict they had given, Between wliich should society choose — the Catholic or any other, to protect itself in the advancement of order and security, and further the ends of morality and justice ? A RICADEIt. Nelson, Oct. lf*th, 18t~>6.