The British government, for the purpose of retaining their supremacy
over the province, have not only connived at those irregularities, but
have always enjoined that the public sanction should be given to their
puerile shows, and their pageant, pompous processions by the attendance
of the civil and military officers upon them, and by desecrating the
Lord's day with martial music, &c. In this particular affair, the
executive officers of the Provincial Government are fully apprised of
all the substantial facts in the case; for an affidavit of the
principal circumstances was presented to Mr. Ogden, the Attorney
General of Canada, and to Mr. Grant, another of the King's counsellors:
and afterward Maria Monk did undergo an examination by those gentlemen,
in the house of Mr. Grant, at Montreal, in the presence of Mr. Comte,
one of the superior order of priests of that city; and of another
Priest, believed to be either Phelan or Dufresne, who was concealed
behind the sofa.
It is also incontrovertible, that the nominal Papists in Canada, who,
in reality, are often infidels, notwithstanding their jocose sneers,
and affected contempt, do generally believe every title of Maria Monk's
narrative. This is the style in which they talk of it. They first,
according to custom, loudly curse the authors; for to find a Papist
infidel who does not break the third commandment, is as difficult as to
point out a moral Roman Priest or a chaste Nun. They first swear at the
author, and then, with a hearty laugh, add the following
illustration:--"Everybody knows that the Priests are a jolly set of
fellows, who live well, and must have license, or they would be
contrary to nature. They have the privilege of going into the
nunneries, and they would be great fools if they did not use and enjoy
it!" Such is the exact language which is adopted among the Canadians;
and such are the precise words which have been used by Canadian
gentlemen in New York, when criticising Maria Monk's volume. It affords
stronger proof than a direct attestation.
The other class of persons who verily believe the "Awful Disclosures,"
are the religious community in Canada. We think that scarcely a
well-informed person can be discovered in Montreal or Quebec, who does
not feel assured, that the interior of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery is most
faithfully depicted by Maria Monk. Many persons are now inhabitants of
New York who formerly resided in Montreal, some of whom have been upon
terms of familiar intimacy for years with those Roman Priests, who are
specified as the principal actors in the scenes depicted in that book;
and they most solemnly declare, that they have no doubt of the truth of
Maria Monk's narrative.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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