A CALUMNY REFUTED.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2100, 16 November 1880, Page 4

A CALUMNY REFUTED.

Under tho above heading the Dunedin ‘ Star’ of Tuesday last had the following : —A little more than n week ago we published an article entitled “ Purgatory in a Convent,” which not unnaturally excited the ire of our contemporary the “ Tablet.” It is scarcely necessary for us to say that in republishing it we had no desire whatever to pander to “ depraved appetites,” no more than had such papers as the London “Telegraph,” “European Mail,” “ Age,” and plenty of others we could name, which feund a place for it in their columno. It turns out that the narrative was a fabrication ; and we give the same prominence to tho refutation as to the original statement: —“The ‘ Monde’ contains a lengthy refutation of a chargo of cruelty said to have been perpetrated by the Sisters of Charity upon an inmate of their convent at Pontremoli. The calumny, which has been repeated by several European and colonial newspapers, was traced to tho Pontremoli correspondent of the “ Epoca,” who circulated it on the authority of a woman of bad character, who, being a patient in the hospital, was displeased with the Sisters because they had not allowed her certain liberties forbidden by tho regulations. Upen the publication of tho false report tho Government authorities took the affair in hand and appointed a Court of Inquiry, consisting ot . the local Delegate of Public Safely, the Procurator of tho King, and the Judgo of Instruction. The young girlijwas examined by two medical men, who report as follows : ‘ Tho undersigned, after having minutely examined the young girl said to have been tortured by burning, makes to the Judge of Instruction the following declaration—‘ Ido not find tho least mark of burning nor any trace whatever of violence. —Dr. J. Bondenaire.’ ‘ The undersigned, Chief Surgeon of the State Hospital of Pontremoli,declares that on the 4th of July last, at tho request or the Delegate of Public Safety, and the President of tho Commission of Charity, he has examined Angiolina, of the Asila des Innocents, aged seventeen years (the supposed victim), and the result of my examination is that no part of her body bears the least mark of burns either of recent or of ancient date.—Dr. P. Fellini.’ Tho veracity of this report in tho ‘Monde’ is certified to by P. Sivafino Midani, Archbishop of Pontremoli, who adds that ‘ the yo ung girl in question is at present a servant in the employ of a farmer on the estate of Captain Ruggero Einaldi, in the village of Corretoli, a short distance from Pontremoli, whore any person moy see and interrogate her.’ ”