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SOLD BY F. ANDREWS; G. AND F. RIVINGTONS, LONDON.

1839.

F. HUMBLE, PRINTER, DURHAM.

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TO THE REV. George TOWNSEND,

PREBENDARY OF DURHAM,

AS A TOKEN Of gratitude, respect, AND AFFECTION,

THIS LETTER,

(WRITTEN IN DEFENCE OF THAT PURE BRANCH OF the

CATHOLIC CHURCH,

TO WHICH HIS Life has been, and is devoted,)

IS DEDICATED,

BY HIS SON AND CURATE,

THE AUTHOR.

To DANIEL O'CONNELL, Esq., M.P.

A LETTER, &c.

SIR, I thank you for your letter. You have thrown away the mask. "The people of England" may henceforth know that the end of your career, the ultimate object of your counsels, is again to impose on them the yoke of those "superstitious additions to the truth," which three centuries ago their forefathers, at the hazard of their lives, rejected and cast away. Flushed with unexpected success in the arena of political contention, you would venture, in a moment of rashness, to intrude into the precincts of the sanctuary. With unhallowed hands you would touch the ark of God. The priests, therefore, of that sanctuary must no longer trust their defence to the timid statesman, the time-serving layman, or to any of the host of worshippers at the shrine of the idol of expediency. We must no more be content to cleanse only the courts, and attend at the altar; we must mount the watchtower in Jerusalem, warn the people of their danger, prepare them for the onset of the enemy, and be ourselves the standard-bearers in the battle.

With no further apology, I shall proceed to the consideration of your letter. Allowing you a certain space for the guarded, cautious, and insinuating expressions with which you necessarily must introduce and interlard any communication made to an audience avowedly repugnant to the subject of discussion, your late address resolves itself into

First; A complaint-which cannot be supported ;
Secondly; An assertion-unfounded in truth;

Thirdly; A boast—which cannot be substantiated. Your complaint is, "that Protestants, by their misrepresentations and calumnies, totally disfigure Catholic truth,"

Your assertion is, "that this Catholic truth is favored by argument, history, unbroken succession, divine tradition, and the written word of God.'"

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