THE CASE OF BERGMANN. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

StR — In your isstte of yesterday you alluded at length to the case of Bergmann, a Lutheran, who died lately a convert to the Catholic religion. You have, apparently, been induced to believe that a great deal of excitement prevails amongst the f4ermans of this city in regard to t the circumstances attending that conversion, namely, that the sick man was informed that there was no Lutheran minister in the place. If it is so, you aay that a searching enquiry should be made concerning the particulars, But who has the right to make the investigation? Such an attempt would be an imitation of inquisition. Bergmann was told, forsooth, that no Lutheran priest dwelt in Wellington. Supposing him to have been misinformed, had he no means of ascertaining the truth? It seems strange that the difficulty of finding a minister of his own religion shotild have thrown him into the arms of the Catholic church, more especially as the other Protestant sects are more in affinity with the Lutheran Church than the Catholic communion is. You assert that the church in question has a representative in Wellington ; if true, is he a properly ordained minister or merely a layman ? If the latter, he could not fulfil the requirements of the deceased, and if the former, it is most extra- J ordinary that we have never heard of him — at any rate his name is not on the clergymen's book of the' Hospital. During the time that elapsed between Bergmann's demand for a Catholic priest and his demise, a space of three weeks occurred; his co-religionists were awftre of what was taking place, and might have investigated matters, but they merely shunned him, and ceased bestowing those favors that had before been so acceptable to the poor fellow. The same feeling was shown at the time of the funeral, when those who cry out for enquiries refused to contribute towards defraying the expenses. I ask, can such exdusiveness in charities, such abrupt modes of terminating them with a dear countryman (whose sole crime was that he obeyed his conscience), be reconciled with true Christianity and humanity ? I think that unbiassed people will give a verdict in favour of one who would Otherwise be the victim of slander, I am, &c., A Witness. sth November.