“The creed of this good Catholic was not half papistical enough to suit these American editors; so they have introduced into it not only what she did believe, but what, in their judgment, she ought to have believed. We desire to call the attention of The Catholic World and the Tablet to this translation. It is possible there may be some explanation of what seems to be an astonishing piece of literary knavery. If there be, we should be glad to hear of it.”
To this the publisher, in the “Literary Bulletin” of The Catholic World for April, replied that—
“The Catholic Publication Society’s edition is printed exactly, word for word, from the first London edition, published by the respectable house of Bentley, in three volumes. If any deviation from the French was made, ‘The Catholic Publication Society’ did not make it, but followed the London edition in good faith, knowing the high source from which it emanated. But as the writer in the New Englander quotes from the fourteenth French edition, how does he know that the alteration may not have been made in that or previous French editions? We have written to the translator [Miss Bowles] in reference to this matter.”
But this did not seem to satisfy the Independent, for in its issue of April 4 it reiterates its accusation of forgery as follows:
“Let us ask once more (this makes three times) what our Catholic neighbor thinks of that forgery in one of the books of ‘The Catholic Publication Society’ which was exposed in the January number of the New Englander. We have looked in vain in the columns of the Tablet for a denunciation of this pious fraud, and our diligent questioning has failed to elicit from that usually fair journal any reply.”
The Chicago Advance is another paper that took particular pleasure in re-echoing the “forgery”; but, unlike the Independent, it notices the denial put forth in the “Bulletin” of The Catholic World, and says:
“The World at last notices the forged prayer in the ‘Sister’s Story,’ brought to light by the New Englander, but affirms that ‘The Catholic Publication Society’ reprinted it verbatim from Bentley’s London edition; and rather improbably suggests that the alteration may have been made in one of the later French editions of the original. Meanwhile, the editor says that the translator [Miss Bowles] has been written to about it. We want The World to be sure to publish her reply.”
To which we reply: Here is the letter.
“5a Davies St., Berkeley Sq.,
London, W., March 18th, 1872.