A SWIHT EXPOSURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9, 1 March 1900, Page 4

A SWIHT EXPOSURE.

Such is, briefly, the history of the remarkable swindle, Maria Monk. But even on the face of it. aud apart from all knowledge of the details of the Iloyte conspiracy, the Aicful Disclosures are not, as we showed last week, deserving of the slightest credit. The lie had, unhappily, a start. But it was a short one. We give a brief record of subsequent proceedings in connection with it, chiefly with a view to point out and gratefully acknowledge the leading and triumphant part which respectable Protestants of every creed took, and took promptly, in investigating the story and proving to the world that it was from beginning to end a tissue of as malignant falsehoods as were ever penned or spoken. Within a few days after its first appearance it was denounced as a gross calumny by the whole of the Montreal Press — the Montreal Herald, the Montreal (ia:ettc, also by the Rucher Mercury, the Quehec Mercury, etc., in words which are before us. In our last issue we referred to the many affidavits by respectable Protestants of Montreal — including Maria Monk's mother — declaring the unfortunate stroller's story (or rather Hoyte's new edition of an old tale) a baseless calumny. Independent investigations were made, with the same result, by Dr. Robertson : by Colonel Stone (editor of the Xi >r ) ork Commercial Ad n rtiv r), assisted by Mr. A. Frothington (President of the Bank of Montreal) and Mr. Duncan Fisher, another Protestant gentleman of the same city ; by Mr. W. Perkins, of Montreal ; and by other prominent Protestants as well. And Appleton's Cyelojurdta of American Jiioaraphy (Ed. 18S8, vol. iv.) — a standard Protestant publication — tells us that ' the Protestant residents of Montreal thought it necessary to deny her allegations in a public meeting held for that purpose. 1 ' Her imposture,' it continues. • considering tho internal improbabilities of her story, is one of the most remarkable on record.' The same publication tells us that ' her stories met with no credence in Montreal, and she was shown to be a woman of bad character.' A few lines further on Appleton's tells us that her malicious tale ' was conclusively proved to bs a falsehood.' Chanibers's Em yi-lopu-diu (Ed. l.s'.U) briefly tells us that she was 'a woman of bad character who pretended, in 183'), to have escaped from the Hotel Dieu Nunnery in Montreal," and that, coming to New York, she ' found a good many credulous adherents.' The findings of the various investigations into the \uful Jhtclosiint maybe summarised as follows —