was, that he was the editor of _L'Ami du Peuple_, the priests'
newspaper, in Montreal, and he was "the author of everything which had
been written there against Maria Monk," and had collected all "the
affidavits and testimony." These were his own declarations. An accurate
report of the interview was published, and had its proper effect,
especially his exclamation--"This is not Fanny Johnson!"

The exciting controversy has long passed, but the authentic records of
it are imperishable, and will ever be regarded as an instructive study.
The corruptions and crimes of nunneries, and the hypocrisy and chicanery
of those who control them, with the varied and powerful means at their
command, are there displayed to an attentive reader, in colors as dark
and appalling as other features of the popish system are among us, by
the recent exposures of the impudent arrogance of the murderer Bedini,
and the ambitious and miserly spirit of his particular friend, the
Romish Archbishop of New York.

Among the recent corroborates of the "Awful Disclosures," may be
particularly mentioned the two narratives entitled "Coralla," and
"Confessions of a Sister of Charity," contained in the work issued this
season by the publishers of the present volume, viz.: "_The Escaped
Nun_; or, Disclosures of Convent Life," &c. Of the authenticity of
those two narratives we can give the public the strongest assurance.

After the city of Rome had been taken by siege by the French army, in
1849, the priests claimed possession of a female orphan-asylum, which
had something of the nature of a nunnery. The republican government had
given liberty to all recluses, and opened all _secret institutions_.
(When will Americans do the same?)