“Mr. Editor,—­I give you, herein, some information respecting a lying wonder wrought in Troy, New York, last winter, and respecting the female who was the ‘medium’ of it.  I have come to the conclusion that this female is a Jesuit, after as good an examination as I have been able to give the matter.  I have been fed with these lying wonders in early life, and in Ireland as well as in this country there are many who, for want of knowing any better, will feed upon them in their hearts by faith and thanksgiving.  About the time this lying wonder of which I am about to write happened, I had been talking of it in the office of Mr. Luther, of Albany, (coal merchant), where were a number of Irish waiting for a job.  One of these men declared, with many curses on his soul if what he told was not true, that he had seen a devil cast out of a woman in his own parish, in Ireland, by the priest.  I told him it would be better for his character’s sake for him to say he heard of it, than to say he saw it.

Mr. J. W. Lockwood, a respectable merchant in Troy, New York, and son of the late mayor, kept two or three young women as ‘helps’ for his lady, last winter.  The name of one is Eliza Mead, and the name of another is Catharine Dillon, a native of the county of Limerick, Ireland.  Eliza was an upper servant, who took care of her mistress and her children.  Catharine was and is now the cook.  Eliza appeared to her mistress to be a very well educated, and a very intellectual woman of 35, though she would try to make believe she could not write, and that she was subject to fits of insanity.  There was then presumptive evidence that she wrote a good deal, and there is now positive evidence that she could write.  She used often, in the presence of Mrs. L., to take the Bible and other books and read them, and would often say she thought the Protestants had a better religion than the Catholics, and were a better people.  Afterwards she told Mrs. L. that she had doubts about the Catholic religion, and was inclined toward the Protestant:  but now she is sure, quite sure, that the Catholic alone is the right one, for it was revealed to her.

On the evening of the 23d of December, 1851, Eliza and Catharine were missing;—­but I will give you Catharine’s affidavit about their business from home.

“City of Troy, S. W.

“I, Catharine Dillon, say, that on Tuesday, 23d December inst, about five o’clock in the afternoon, I went with Eliza Mead to see the priest, Mr. McDonnel, who was at home.  Eliza remained there till about six o’clock P. M. At that time I returned home, leaving her at the priest’s.  At half past eight o’clock the same evening I returned to the priest’s house for Eliza, and waited there for her till about ten o’clock of the same evening, expecting that Eliza’s conference with the priest would be ended, and that she would come home with me.