Dear Sir, --- My attention has been called to a letter from
Professor Patterson in your issue of October 31. My note ---
to which it is a reply --- was called forth by your direct challenge
to myself to investigate the evidence against my friend, Madame Blavatsky, and I had no
intention of provoking a prolonged correspondence. It is clear that we are face to
face with absolutely contradictory assertions. Professor Patterson says Madame
Coulomb was not paid for the letters: Major General Morgan says (pamphlet published in
1884, “Reply to a Report,” &c) that the Scottish missionaries “paid
them (the Coulombs) Rs. 150 as a commencement.” Professor Patterson says every
Theosophist who has expressed a wish to see the letters has been permitted to do so.
Madame Blavatsky tells me she asked, and was refused; Mr. B. Keightley tells me he asked,
and was refused, and that to his personal knowledge other prominent Theosophists met with
the same refusal. I do not know Professor Patterson; I do know these Theosophists;
and I prefer to accept their word.
But my belief in the forgery of the letters does not rest on these comparative trifles;
it rests on a review of the whole case. On one side, a man and woman who had been
expelled from a society, the latter for attempts to extort money --- four affidavits of
such attempts are in evidence; a woman who had been prevented by Madame Blavatsky from
obtaining money, and had vowed to be revenged --- affidavit giving this threat; a woman
who had attempted to blackmail Madame Blavatsky --- letter sent by her; a woman who had
forged letters from Dr. Hartmann and Major-General Morgan, and who, bringing a suit
against the latter for accusing her of forgery, dropped it before it came to trial (the
pretence that it was dropped because Madame Blavatsky had left is absurd; what had that
lady to do with the forgery of Major-General Morgan’s letter?) --- a woman who, by
her own confession, had been guilty of fraud. On the other side, the evidence of a
committee, including Dr. Hartmann, Major-General Morgan, A. J. Cooper-Oakley, Dr. Gebhard,
and ten Indian gentlemen of rank, learning, and proved ability, who investigated every
charge at the time, and declared each one to be fully disproved; the testimony of those
who saw the letters that they were manifest forgeries (see Report, 1885); the testimony of Mr. G. Row [Sreenevas Row], “from my experience
as a judicial officer of twenty-five years’ standing,” “I came to the
conclusion that every one of the letters was a forgery” (Official
Report, 1884); the parallel forgeries on Dr. Hartmann and Major-General Morgan,
alleging their disbelief in Madame Blavatsky --- forgeries at once denounced and exposed
by them on the spot; the internal evidence of the letters, such as the illiterate French,
whereas Madame Blavatsky speaks and writes French perfectly, like most educated Russians;
the fact that Madame Coulomb was disgraced and expelled, and had everything to gain by
currying favour with the missionaries; the fact that the letters were published while
Madame Blavatsky was in Europe, that she hurried back to meet the accusation, remained
while the matter was investigated, and only left again when the accusations were
disproved. (So far from flying secretly, she was assisted into the steamer by the
Presidency Magistrate himself, and left at the peremptory order of Dr. Scharlieb, her
medical attendant, who feared for her life if she remained in the Madras climate.
She had not been called as a witness in the Coulomb-Morgan case, having no concern in
it.) I might add to all this the oath of Madame Coulomb: “I may have said
something in my rage, but I swear on all that is sacred for me that I never said fraud,
secret passages, traps, nor that my husband had helped you in any way. If my mouth
has uttered these words, I pray to the Almighty to shower on my head the worst
maledictions in nature.” Emphatic, very; but I do not lay stress on an oath
from such lips.
As to Professor Patterson’s final threat, let him publish. If any
compromising documents existed, those who used Madame Coulomb can have no scruples which
would prevent the publication. Madame Blavatsky is poor, a worn-out invalid; she is
not likely to go to India to prosecute him.
19, Avenue-road,
N.W.
Annie Besant.