Facts versus Fiction.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5, 1 February 1900, Page 5

Facts versus Fiction.

1. Mrs. Slattery's bold lying begins with the very first sentence of her autobiography — the story of her birth near Cootehill on March 2, 1867. Here is the copy of a document which the editor of the Glasgow Observer — who did so much to expose this paripatetic pair — has kindly offered to place at our disposal. It was published in the Observer of October 28, 1898 (p. 14), during the visit of the Slatterys to Scotland :—: — ' Union, Cootehill, County Cavan. ' Workhouse, Cootehill, ' 21st January, IS9B.

' I hereby certify that I have examined the Register Books in this office from Ist January, 186-1, to the present date, and that they do not contain any entry of the birth of Mary E. MacCabe, daughter of James MacCabe and Catherine O'Neill.

(Signed) James J. Hennessy, Assistant Superintendent Registrar. '(Countersigned) Thomas Mackey.' ||

2-4. The remaining statements extracted from Mrs. Slattery's story are easily disposed of. In so far as they relate to her alleged life within the Catholic Church they are, like the opening sentence of her history, rank falsehoods : the trail of the serpent runs through the whole of her evil talc. The following correspondence has appeared in secular or Catholic papers or in pamphlets along the whole track pursued by the Slattery combination in England, Scotland, and Australia. It sufficiently explains itself. The vital positions of it have also been published by the Auckland Observer of January 20, 1900. The following is extracted from a letter by Dean Lynch (now of St. Winifred's, Hulme, Manchester), which appeared in the Manchester Courier of January 1, IS9B :—: — ' When they [the Slatterys] began their lecturing tour, naturally people sought at once to verify the lecturer's statements. No James MacCabe could be found to have lived in the neighbourhood of Cootehill with a daughter named Mary E. MacCabe, the " escaped nun." No Mrs. John Brandon lived in Cavan. Various other people mentioned in Mrs. Slattery's autobiography were all found to be fictitious. The Bishop of Kilmore, who lives in Cavan, officially certified that no Mary E. MacCabe, from the neighbourhood of Cootehill, ever entered the Convent of Poor Clares, Cavan. The present Lady Superior, who entered the convent as a nun in 18(57, the year in which Mrs Slattery was born, officially denies that Mary E. MacCabe entered the convent, and that no nun could be in it within the last 31 years without her knowledge. The nuns mentioned, by Mrs. Slattery — Mother Joseph, Sister Justine, Sister Ursula, etc — were all fictitious. No nuns with those names were ever in the Cavan Convent. Just like her husband, she invented names, and was careful not to mention the name of a single real nun. If she did the whole truth would very speedily and summarily be made known before a Lancashire jury.'

Father Lynch, Mr. Britten, and others also published the following letters which have ever since been upon the tracks of the Slattery pair, and have never met with even the pretence of disproof. The following is from the lady who has been for 32 years in the convent where the Slattery woman claims to have been a postulant and novice. It was written as far back as 1892, in

- Convent Life, p. 35. For the information of non-Catholic readers we may state that a poitulanl is merely a candidate or petitioner who enters a religious house. She does not wear the religious garb of the Order, and the object ot her stay is to give her an opportunity of getting acquainted with the rules and routine of the religious lite before she decides to become a novice, that is, to enter upon the period ot probation— varying from one to three y< ars — before being accepted and taking the required vows of pov erty, chastity, and obedience which constitute her a nun. During this period of probation — which is termed the novitiate— the Order is in no way bound to a novice, nor the novice to the Older, At its close the Order is in no way bound to accept the novice, and the novice on her part, is free to depart at any time.

t These names are mentioned with great frequency throughout the book. We have merely indicated »ome of the pages on which they are to be found.

tP. 119. On p. 12 site tells us that her cousin was married 'to the Reverend Robert J. Morton, an Episcopal clergyman, who afterwards became a bishop of the Anglican Church, ani inherited the baronial estates of the Morton family in Devonsliire, by both of which he became, accoroing to English law, the Eight Reverend Sir Robert Morton, and his wite Lady Morton.'

§ See p. — above.

|| Every Poor-law Union is subdivided into districts. Each district lins its locally resident registrar. These make out their returns quarterly and forward them to the superintendent-rogistr.ir of the district. The registers are carefully preserved and may be inspected and extracts copied from them on paj ment ot a small fee. Parents, or in their default certain others, are bound under a penalty to notify the district registrar of every live birth within 42 days, and the registrar is, in his part, bound to see that this is done and to register all births in his district free within three monthb, with full particulars as to sex, name, parentage, etc.

reply to an inquiry, from an American gentleman, Mr. Michael Lynam, of St. Louis College, Atchison, Kansas :—: — ' St. Joseph's Abbey, Poor Clares, Cavan. Ireland, December IG, 1892.

' Dear Mr. Lynam, — The receipt of your kind letter this morning has given me a strange surprise, and I hasten to give you the desired information. It gives me much pleasure to state that the supposed lady Elizabeth has never been an inmate of St. Joseph's Convent, Cavan. We never had a Sister of that name, and no member of community came to us at eight years of age, or brought us £6000. . . . No professed Sister has ever left our Convent, and the few novices who left are all living edifying lives in the world or in the cloister elsewhere. We know where all are, and keep-up a correspondence with them. No one is ever pressed to stay in our Convent ; it is a very great favour to be kept. I can prove this if necessary, and the 120 inmates in our institution oan do the same. . . . Should you take any means to put a stop to such an abuse, I will give you all the proof you require against the M. Elizabeth, if the Americans have any law to punish persons guilty of libel. I would be most gratified if you would kindly send me the papers in which the lectures are published ; perhaps we could do something to prevent further scandal ' I remain, dear Mr. Lynam, ' Sincerely yours, • Sister Mart Baptist, ' Abbess.'

The following further testimony was given in reply to an inquiry from Manchester at the time that the Slatterys were disturbing the peace of that city with their inflammatory harangues :—: —

' St. Joseph's Abbey, ' Poor Clares. Cavan, ' December 18, 1897.

1 Dear Father Lynch, — Mrs. Slattery, otherwise Mary E" MacCabe, from near Cootehill, otherwise Sister Mary Elizabeth, was never in this Convent as postulant, novice, or nun. No postulant entered this Convent on 10th March, 1883. No one received the white veil in the month of June, 1883. There never was a Mother Joseph Superior here, nor a Sister Loyola, nor a Sister Justine, nor a Sister Ursula.

' I am, dear Father Lynch, ' I'ours faithfully, • Sister Mary Baptist, 'Abbess.'

We have in our possession an equally emphatic repudiation of ' Mary F.. McCabe,' alias ' Sister Mary Elizabeth,' in the handwriting of Sister Mary Baptist. The following declaration of the Bishop of Kilmore, in reply to further inquiries, disposes of a good many of Mrs. Slattery's fables :—: —

' Cullies House, Cavan, 'December 18, 1897.

' Dear Father Lynch, — I have already contradicted the statement that Mary E. MacCabe, from the vicinity of Cootehill, was in the Convent of Poor Clares, Cavan, as postulant or novice. I repeat that contradiction. There never was a Sister Mary Elizabeth there. No postulant was admitted on March 10, 1883. No novice got the white veil in June, 1883. There never was a Superior called Mother Joseph. There never was a Sister Justine, nor a Sister Loyola, nor a Sister Ursula, nor an Hon. Blanche Coote, otherwise Sister Mary Frances. I have made inquiry in Cootehill about the alleged family history of Mary E. MacCabe. It is an invention pure and simple. It is alleged that a John Marlowe, J.P., lives at Tullavin. No such person lives there ; no such person ever lived there. No Mrs. John Brandon lives in Cavan, 1 1 am, dear Father Lynch, ' Yours faithfully, ' >%* Edward McGennis, ' Bishop of Kihnore.' A Missing Bishop-Baronet.

All this sets at rest the mad tale of the ' rescue ' of ' Mary E. McCabe ' from a convent under the roof of which she never lived in any capacity. But the story of Lady Morton, the gallant female 1 rescuer ' — who, she informs us elsewhere in elegant phrase, had the courage to (metaphorically) ' sit down upon ' the wicked superior — remains to be told. Lady Morton was, as we are told, the wife of the Rev. Robert J. Morton, who afterwards became ( the Right Reverend Sir Robert J. Morton.' And this Right Rev. Sir Robert J. was a bishop in the Episcopal Church in Devonshire, England, and also a baronet.' * These names are printed in full in the American edition of Convent Life. But lo ! in the English edition the names are quietly suppressed and represented by mere initials. They became ' Lady M ' and ' Sir Robert M ,' etc.f The reason is manifest. Like ' Mother Joseph,' and ' Sister Loyola,' and • Sister Justine,' and ' Sister Ursula, 1 and ' Sister Mary Frances,' and ' James McCabe,' and ' Mrs. John Br.'.ndon,' and • Mr. John Marlowe, J.P..' ' Lady Morton ' and her husband ' the Right Reverend Sir Robert Morton ' are fictions pure and simple of Mrs. Slattery's imagination. These names were good enough to pass current in a far-off country where investigation by letter would have been slow and by cable message costly. They were judiciously sunpressed in England, where the story of the Devonshire bishopbaronet could not have stood the light of publicity for half an hour. The Blue Booh has been ransacked ; official lists have been closely scanned ; Burke and Debret have been turned inside out ; annuals such as Who's Who have been searched ; but all to no purpose. The reason is very simple : there i.t no baronet flamed

* Convent Lije, p. 119, 1 English edition, pp. 9, 22, 128.

Morton in Great Britain. Our own personal rainbow chase after the imaginary baronet-bishop has led us far enough afield into such literature. Among other authorities we have carefully perused the endless lists of baronets and bishops in Haydn's massive Book of Dignities* Not alone has there been no ' Right Reverend' (or any Reverend) Sir Robert .J. .Morton among the 1 i->fci ->fc o° British baronets in the present century ; but, as far as the information in the Bool; of Dignitiii goes.i there ntrer has bun. Moreover.////) 1 ' iinot. and there ni rt r has h<tn, itther in Dc ronih/rt or m any olh< r place in Unglnnil, vlittht r in /ire- Hi formation or po^t-Ht torinat ion thnrft, ant/ hUh»p »am,,l 'the 11/oht lit ft re ml Sir J'oln rt J. Morton,' And the /'/err/;/ L/t', as Mr. Britteti testifies — and as may be readily a o c"rtainol hy reference to it — contains no such name as that of the ' Rev. Robert J. Morton.' Our readers can now understand why — despite her boast that she ' has nothing to conceal,' that she "has no fear of investigation.' and will publish 'all names,' even of those who 'will bi'teily resent it' — Mrs. Slattery found it prudent to suppress such names in a country where her romance of high life could be so speedily exposed.

The ready resort of the Slatterys to fictitious names explains why the Poor Clares of Cavan have been unable to prosecute this wretched impostor. The names of the nuns given in her autobiographical romance are, like those of the English baronet-bishop and his wife, more shadowy than the John Doe and Richard Roe and the John Styles and the Joan of Noakes of the old-time lawyers But for this exercise of prudence — which she and the rest of her fraudulent kind have learned from the reprobate compiler of Maria Monk — Mrs. Slattery's career would long ago have been brought to a close by the operation of the law of libel.

There is another aspect to this woman's fraud which closely affects the character and bona fides of ex-priest Joseph Slattery. The facts which have been stated above regarding the career of his female companion have been repeatedly brought before him by articles and correspondence in the secular Press and in the religious weeklies (Protestant and Catholic) : by registered letters ; displayed placards (one of which is in our possession) ; by public challenges which he as publicly refused to accept ; by affidavits ; and in other ways. Thus far neither he nor she has taken any steps to clear the female partner in the business of the serious and well-proven charges of fraud which have been levelled against her on three continents, as well as in New Zealand. J It is, therefore, folly to argue that Joseph Slattery has no knowledge of the woman's bad faith. In the face of all this, he advertises her on his handbills as ' the Epcaped Nun,' ' Mrs. Slattery, otherwise Sister Mary Elisabeth,' and ' Mrs. Slattery, known in the convent as Sister Mary Elisabeth.' Her portrait in nun's clothing- adorns the cover of two of her pamphlets, and on the title-page of her Convent Lift she boldly announces herself as ' Mrs. Slattery, otherwise Sister Mary Elizabeth, Abbey of Poor Clares, Co. van, Ireland. '^ In her lectures she poses as a former novice of that convent. Money was charged for admission to those lectures — in fact, the gospel of L. S. D. is written large over the whole • venture." That money was in plain terms, obtained under a false pretence.

* Edition of 1 sOO.s OO. This ponderous volume ombnee-, tin' <.iili-t him of Bentson's Poll t tad hub i of lsCli and the late Joseph lfijdn'- addition-, winch broupht it, dow uto 18~>1. Jlr. Ockc i b\ , iv the edition liclore us, bnujrht it, >hn\ n to 189 U.

fltslivf- of baronet' extend* far hick into tho eighteenth continj, and us lists of bi-hop= contain nil a\ iilablo n.iii.i - hack to the da,)-> of St. Aniriwiiii'. A.D. 597.

}The Auckland <ibi> n i li is puMi-'io.l tin 1 -iib't in t nl \fi Mi icten - piniiihlet.aiul liiecuurr i\|.n-nu- the (in>->~ ot both slmn\ mil lu-ui.i In- bi ' n extensively uieul itid 111 1 on i tin nftuc oi tin' .N /, r mm n.

§ Am euon i 1. On p. 11 of SI ittei > - ''•nn/if-' li-mhduni <}\p 10-mi \,ici feroush as-,eit> ln-i jcmU'ih-p hi tint irmwnt, < \-imn Vi>-. (u-i'k lu\i,is; characterised In i '<> ii'enf /.>'■ is a u^-m uf { iKuluxxN