The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-10 00:00:00

servant,

TO MR. JOHN MACDONALD.

London, 7th May, 1833.

Srß,—Your letter of the 4th instant has been sent after me
to London. lam pressed by many engagements; still, I can-
not hesitate to send yon an immediate reply.

You inform me that arrangements have been made for two
great meetings, at which a chair shall be expressly provided
for me, and every precaution adopted to show due deference to
my calling and position.

You further inform me that you and your friends, the Ca-
tholic laymen who have made arrangements for these meetings,
are kind and impartial enough to have fixed upon the precise
subjects which lam to discuss. At the first meeting I am to
prove " who sent me to preach the Gospel, and my authority
as a Catholic Priest ;" and at the second meeting I am " to dis-
prove, or defend certain abuses, errors, and corruptions of the
Church of England."
. _

You then proceed to urge upon me the duty of not treating
your letter with disrespect, or yourself with unconcern ; and
this you do by Christian arguments taken from my letters to
Mr. Power : arguments which, though they have hitherto failed
to produce any salutary impression upon one of your own
Priests, you think, and justly think, are such as cannot fail to
•
take effect upon me.
I recognise their cogency; and, although I have not the ad-
vantage of knowing who or what you are, I give immediate
attention to your communication.
In the first place, then, I rejoice to learn on such unques-
tionable authority as I am bound to suppose your letter to be,
that " a number of Catholic laymen duly appreciate my desire
to enlighten their benighted intellects." This is a step in the
right direction. But now, as to the best mode of aiming at the
attainment of this highly desirable result, permit me to invite
you to consider how very superior PUBLISHED LETTERS are to
speeches delivered at large meetings.
Such letters possess these advantages. They contain all the
reasoning, all the facts and dates, all that is calculated to en-
lighten, without any of the noise, or confusion, or misunder-
standing, or misrepresentation, incident unhappily to con-
troversial meetings.
This is something ; but, in addition to this, such letters
attain at once, and with correctness, that wide-spread publicity
among thousands in diverse places, which speeches cannot
attain till published, and seldom attain with such strict accu-
racy of reporting as our sacred subject demands.
Moreover, letters, calmly and deliberately composed, secure
impartial fair play to sound reiiidning and convincing facts
and arguments, by depriving a ready and eloquent speaker of
the unfair advantage he would have at a meeting, over an oppo-
nent equally well informed. but not equally practised or ready
in turning his information to extemporaneous account.

I might add other reasons, but these are sufficient to express
the grounds of my preference for publications rather than
meetings, for such purposes as you.say you have in view. There
are indeed objects for which meetings are preferable,—for which
meetings are indispensable; but for purposes of serious reli-
gious controversy, where the object is to enlighten, and the
risk is to irritate, I hope )•ou will not consider it disrespectful
when I say that I prefer publications to meetings.
It was to this peaceful mode of discussion that I invited
your Priest. Instead of getting up noisy, and perhaps angry,
meetings, to attempt to screen his refusal, you should go to him
and urge upon him the discharge of his high duty as a watch-
man among you. If he can't perform that duty, you should

gravely consider whether he is any longer entitled to your con-

fidence

Now, with regard to the first thesis which you have assigned
to me,—viz., "My authority as a Priest of the Catholic
Church,"--It is simply this :
I was crdained in clue form by a Bishop, who was consecrated
in unbroken succession from the inspired Apostles of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is true that in the course

of the succession some of the Bishops who formed links'in the
chain were not, in their opinions or practices, orthodox
Catholics. They had, in a greater or less degree, fallen into
those errors which the Church of Rome, at the dictation of
Pope Pius IV., and in defiance of the decrees of oecumenical
councils, arranged into a Creed, and imposed upon her
Clergy for subscription in the year 1564.
But though in error as individuals, they were in unbroken
succession as Bishops.

The errors I refer to, both in doctrine and practice, were
exposed and reformed in England previous to the imposition
of the NEW CREED of the Church of Rome. In Rome the
channels were so obstructed by the traditions of men, that the
waters of life could not flow freely through them. In England
the waters were purified from human corruptions, without any
break or interruption in the channels.

From this source, clear in its spring from the Apostolic
fountain, muddy in its meanderings through mediaeval corrup-
tions, cleansed and purified by reforming fidelity, I have re-
ceived, by the laying on of hands and by prayer, my authority,
as a Priest of the Catholic Church, to preach the glad tidings of
free salvation by Jesus Christ, without money and without
merit in man, and to administer the rinly sacraments which
Christ ordained in His Church.—viz., Baptism, and Lord's
Supper.

If you deny this authority, please to chew where the succes-
sion failed : at what link the chain was broken. Perhaps you
are aware that some persons, who still assert that :here was a
break in the chain in England, acknowledge that there was no
break in Ireland. I was ordained by an Irish Bishop.
With regard to the second thesis which you have prepared
for me, viz., "To disprove, or defend certain abuses, errors,
and corruptions in the Church of England." As you do not
specify whst these are, I cannot enter into particulars. But
this I say. If there be errors, or abuses, or corruptions, in
the Church of England, I protest against them as sincerely
as you can do. I am not at all concerned to defend them.
There is no sinking weight of boasted infallibility hanging
around our necks. Into the kutnan administration of even
a divine thing, errors will find their way: and against any
errors, of any kind, which may have thus found a place among
us in the Church of England, I protest. I have no desire to de-
fend them. I wish to see them as effectually reformed as the
grosser abuses which prevailed three hundred years ago were
reformed.

theArneda
rief
ay,ouluaabsuksems,e
mhyo wanl
sclavenr bise—lobneceatuos
ea
ICbheulrocnhgi,naisshyiecth,
to a fallen world, wherein nothing is perfect. Any change of
Church which I could make in this world would be a change
for the worse. My only escape from abuses altogether is to go
to heaven, where I may yet have the happiness to meet you,
and Priest Power also, if you and he will truly repent of all
your sins, steadfastly purpose to live a new life, have a lively
faith in God's mercy through Christ. with a thankful remem-
brance of His Death, and be in charity with all men.

I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
HUGH ➢I`NEILE

P.S.—As I must decline private correspondence on this sub-
ject, I send your letter and a copy of this reply to the news•
paper. I shall desire that a copy of the paper may be sent to
you on Tuesday morning. and I hope you will read this letter
to your assembled friends.

aad n gentlemen, bevertisement columns that season
THE DUBLIN EXHIBITION.—It will be seen by an
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