"stagnation" of speech, brought on by an illness into which she had fallen in her eleventh year. Dr. Doyle, the titular bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, represented her case to the Most Serene and Very Reverend Prince; giving the history of her deprivation, the ill success that had attended all the means employed for the recovery of her articulation, adding, at the same time, that the " organs of sense continued perfect." In answer to the bishop's letter, Mr. Sagelanbrock, who appears to act as the prince's secretary, inclosed directions, written in the French language, which have been translated as follows: "To Miss Lalor, and all those who will spiritually unite in prayer. On the 10th of June, at nine o'clock, I will, agreeably to your request, offer my prayers for your recovery. Unite with them at the same time, after having confessed and received the holy communion, your own, together with the evangelical fervour, that full and entire confidence which we owe to our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Excite in the recesses of your heart the divine virtues of due contrition, of an unbounded confidence that you will be heard, and an immovable resolution of leading an exemplary life for the purpose of preserving yourself in a state of grace.-Accept the assurance of my consideration.-Hultenheim, 9th May, 1823, near Bamberg." "His most Serene Highness recommends some devotion in honour of the most holy name of Jesus, and of St. John Nepomuscene. Martin Mechael, a truly religious man, united in friendship with the prince and with me, will join his prayers to those of his Highness. To avoid the expense of postage, I shall send this letter by Holland. This instant we have received an account from Verdelain, diocese of Bourdeaux, in France, stating with the utmost joy that a young female deprived of the use of speech for five years, has been restored to it in the church, on the day and hour appointed, namely, the 14th of March. May God grant increase and perseverance. On the part of his most Serene Highness the Prince. These commuications having reached Dr. Doyle on the 1st of June, he immediately made known the substance of them to Mr. O'Connor, rural Dean of the district in which Miss Lalor resided. The 10th of June was the day appointed by the Prince for the benefit of that young lady: and accordingly on the 11th of the same month, Mr. O'Connor writes to his bishop as follows, relative to the effects of their joint devotions. "At twelve minutes before eight o'clock on the morning of the 10th, my two coadjutors with myself began mass at the hour ap. pointed. I offered the holy sacrifice in the name of the church. I besought the Lord to overlook my own unworthiness, and regard only Jesus Christ, the great High Priest and Victim, who offers himself in the mass to the eternal Father, for the living and the dead. I implored the Mother of God, of all the Angels and Saints, and particularly of St. John Nepomascene. I administered the sacrament to the young lady at the usual time, when instantly she heard as it were a voice distinctly saying to her MARY YOU ARE WELL;' when she exclaimed O LORD, AM I?' and overwhelmed with devotion fell prostrate on her face,' Miss Lalor being thus restored to the use of speech, Dr. Doyle forthwith published to his well-beloved the catholic clergy and people of the diocese of Kildare, a Fastoral Address, dated the 22d of June, announcing the cure, and accompanied with a minute statement of the facts attending it, as drawn up by the rural Dean O'Connor. Among other particulars it is mentioned, that "Medical aid was tried by Dr. Ferris, of Athy, and Surgeon Smith, of Mountrath, but without effect. The latter gentleman, as a similar case never occured in the course of his practice, resolved to have it submitted to the most eminent physicians in Dublin, eight of whom were consulted by him, and the result was that no hopes could be entertained of her recovery. This decision was imparted by Dr. Smith to her father, apart from Mrs. and Miss Lalor; all which circumstances the Doctor recollected on the 14th instant, when he saw Miss Lalor, heard her speak, and declared the cure to be miraculous." There is great appearance of dishonesty in the whole of this transaction. In the first place, how could Mr. O'Connor, in a statement of facts drawn up on the 11th of June, have it in his power to give an account of Dr. Smith's recollections and declarations which did not take place till the 14th? The document must have been enlarged and improved when in the hands of Dr. Doyle. It is, however, much more material to mention in the second place that no sooner did Dr. Smith see the statements now alluded to, in the public prints, than he published, under the signature of a respectable Inhabitant of Mountrath, a flat and unequivocal denial of the whole representation, in so far as it concerned himself; solemnly declaring it to be a fabrication, entirely at variance with truth. Mr. O'Connor, however, still persisted in asserting that a miracle had been performed, and publickly announced his readiness to come forward on the 26th of July with such a number of affidavits as would place the matter beyond all doubt. Annoyed by this pertinacity, Dr. Smith thought it expedient VOL. XXI. MARCH, 1824 to transmit to the Dublin Evening Post, the paper in which Mr. O'Connor's letter had appeared, the following communication, accompanied with an affidavit "Sir, Having seen in your paper of yesterday a paragraph stating that, on Saturday next you would publish a series of documents, authenticating beyond doubt or denial the cure performed on Miss Lalor of Rosskelton, and having been furnished with copies of affidavits upon that subject by Mr. Scott, before whom they were taken, I now feel myself imperatively called upon, however reluctant I am to be dragged before the public upon such an occasion, to make the annexed affidavit. Nor can I avoid observing that I feel the Rev. Mr. O'Connor's conduct towards me, as a professional man, unkind and unjustifiable. As to the Lalors, they are not in that situation of life for me to express my feelings of them; nor shall I hereafter reply to any of the parties concerned in that transaction. "I have the honour, &c. &c. The object of the affidavit, here alluded to, was solely to attest the truth and authenticity of the letter signed a "respectable inhabitant of Mountrath;" and which, as we have already stated, contained a direct and undisguised denial of Mr. O'Connor's representation, and of Dr. Doyle's inferences, so far as these respected the professional opinions of Dr. Smith. He denies, "That he has any recollection whatever of his having volunteered to obtain the advice or opinion of any physician, and if deponent thought it necessary to do so, he feels confident that he would have proposed a consultation with Dr. Ferris, who had previously seen the child, and who was so near." It is well observed by Mr. Finlayson, that if eight Dublin, physicians were consulted by Dr. Smith, as Mr. O'Connor is pleased to assert, in his statement of facts, as the ground of the opinion" that no hopes could be entertained of her (Miss Lalor's) recovery," the question of veracity might have been instantly set at rest, by obtaining the affidavits of two or three of those physicians. This ready expedient, however, appears not to have suggested itself either to the Bishop or his Rural Dean; and it is therefore extremely difficult not to participate in the suspicion entertained by our author, that there was in the whole of this singular transaction more of zeal than of honesty, on the part of the churchmen, principally concerned in it. In short, the more attentively we examine into the circumstances which accompanied the miracles of Hohenloe in Ire land, the more severely is our candour put to the test. We are, it is true, extremely unwilling to imagine that the most Reverend Dr. Murray could stoop to such a paltry piece of deceit as Mr. Finlayson flatly charges him with; and yet there is, on the face of the whole proceeding at the convent of St. Joseph, a kind of presumptive evidence, which appears to justify some of the most unfavourable conclusions at which this latter gentleman arrives. For example, we are compelled to infer from the several statements of the Archbishop, either thot he did not place much confidence in the reports which had reached him in regard to the Prince's miracles; or that he must have known, before the 2d of August, that prepara tions were going on among the nuns of Ranelagh for obtaining a share of the holy man's blessing. There is a shade of suspicious concealment thrown over the history of Miss Stuart's case which prevents us from discovering not only who were the persons with whom the application to Bamberg originated, but also the purport and date of the correspondence which must have passed between that city and Dublin, previous to the occurrence of the miracle. The details with which the Romish Prelate supplies the curiosity of the world are confined to the immediate circumstances of the miracle, and give us no means of ascertaining at what period, or by what agents the intercession of Hohenloe was first solicited. On the contrary, his object seems to be to impress upon the public that he really knew nothing of the matter till the actual occurrence of the miracle commanded his official interference, and rendered it an imperative duty to make known the works of the Lord. Mr. Finlayson presents good reason for believing that the correspondence with Bamberg must have begun as early as the month of January: and in the reported symptoms of Miss Stuart's illness, he perceives, he thinks, a regular and studied preparation for the grand result of the 1st of August. She became gradually worse and worse: her speech forsook her, and her stagnations recurred more frequently. Medical men were called to see her; but their visits were just sufficient to enable them to certify that they found her in ill health; not to concert measures for effecting a cure. It occasions, indeed, no small surprise that, during about five weeks previous to the first of August, when Miss Stuart was in the greatest extremity, lying helpless and speechless in the imdiate prospect of death, we do not find, either from the depositions or certificates, that any medical gentleman was in regular attendance. Dr. Mills appears to be the only physician who could be said to be even the occasional attendant of that lady. Dr. Cheyne had seen her only once, on the 17th of June, in consultation with Dr. Mills; and Mr. M.Namara, previous to the 31st of July, had only seen her in consultation with Dr. Mills about two years before. Yet Dr. Mills sees her not from June, it is presumed the 17th, till about the middle: of July; and afterwards not till the 31st, when she replied as › she had done on the former visit, only by signs. Now, says Mr. Finlayson, "Why did the pious sisters on this very eve, and in the continual apprehension of Miss Stuart's immediate dissolution, not have recourse to all the aid which medical skill could afford? Was it because all human means had long failed, and because they dispaired of obtaining any relief? It is precisely in such circumstances: that dear friends and relatives cling to the very last to all the resources of the healing art. Well, did we not call in Dr. Mills on the 31st July; and Mr. M'Namara, the surgeon, on the 31st of July; and Mr. Madden, the apothecary on the 31st of July, Pshaw! You called them in!-To be sure you did: and who does not see, with half a glance, for what purpose you called them in? You perverse man, do you suspect the purity of our intentions? Suspect it!"-" When the determination is once formed to remain under a dumb palsy for a certain length of time, it will give no surprise that the remedies prescribed by a physician fail of success." Miss It is certainly not a little suspicious that no medical aid should have been called, except on one solitary occasion, from the 17th of June to the 31st of July: and moreover that on the latter day, the eve of the expected miracle, no fewer than three practitioners should have been summoned. Stuart deposes" that on the 27th day of June she lost all faculty of speech, which could not be restored by the most, powerful remedies that were applied." Now," as Mr. Finlayson observes, "we hear of no medical visit from the 17th of June till about the middle of July," when Dr. Mills was informed, "that she had not spoken for three weeks." When he was called again on the 31st, she replied to his questions by signs, but he says not one word of the application of the most powerful remedies," nor indeed of any, remedies at all. We have already mentioned that the studied obscurity in which all the preliminary arrangments are involved, excites a very reasonable suspicion as to the candour of the principal agents, by whose ministry, or rather under whose auspices the miraculous cure was performed. The lady deposes that "She attributes her instantaneous recovery to the supernatural interference of the Divine power, through the intercession of Prince |