90 MEMOIB OF ALFRED SMEE. [Ohap. VIII. 



In July 1863, commenced the celebrated fight between 

 Alfred Smee and the Jesuits. My mother's brother had joined 

 one of their confraternities, and had during this month died, 

 leaying the whole of his property inherited from his father to the 

 Principal of the Brompton Oratorians. For many years before 

 my father had wished to have a passage of arms with the Jesuits, 

 and would have done so had not my mother been fearful lest they 

 should send her brother to some monastery on the Continent 

 where she could neyer see him again, and she ever indulged in 

 the hope that her brother might one day be rescued from the 

 clutches of the Oratorians. This hope, however, was not realized, 

 for he died in the forty-first year of his age ; though I think that 

 had he recovered from his last illness he would have been induced 

 to leave the Oratorians, and live under the roof of his sister 

 and her husband, both of whom he had, previous to joining 

 the Komish Church, ever held in great affection. After my 

 uncle's death the fight commenced : there was a lengthy corre- 

 spondence in the press during the summer and latter part 

 of 1862, and the beginning of 1863, to which I must refer the 

 reader. The will was contested, and it was not until it was 

 brought into court that any information could be obtained. 

 However, the case was lost : there was not sufficient legal 

 evidence — which we were not surprised at. But it was as well 

 the will was put into court, for it thereby showed to the world 

 the manner in which the wills of the members of the Brompton 

 Oratory are made. It awakened against them a feeling of dis- 

 gust among those who love the liberty of Protestant England. 

 Already, long before his death, my uncle was a poor man : 

 the bulk of his property had gone. Where? My father also 

 contested the right of religious communities to have private and 

 secret burial-grounds. Here, again, the correspondence was 

 lengthy, but the gist of it is that my father complained, " 1st, 

 That the Oratory has a private and secret burial-ground, without 

 public access or boundary walls, which has no public register 

 of burials, and where the names on the tombstones are changed ; 

 2nd, That this private and secret burial-ground, and the means 

 of concealment you have in your houses, are used to obtain 

 money from converts under religious intimidation." 



During this summer a party wishing to see the grave were 

 refused, as they had no private order from the Oratorians with 

 them. This private and secret burial-ground is in the garden 

 attached to a house they have at Sydenham. Great interest was 



