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a subject. It is because the case which I shall produce is of a public character, as illustrating the kind of honesty and honour which Protestant writers have to expect from authors, particularly professed critics, of the Roman Church, more especially if anonymous, that I venture to occupy a portion of your pages with a discussion which might otherwise need an apology.
"In a Dublin Review for last year, No. IX. p. 43, at the close of the note, occur the following words: 'M. Ranke refrains from quoting Mr. Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent, because, as he justly observes (Vol. iii. p. 289), the author of them has not displayed the learning and study necessary for working out his materials.' The article is a review of Ranke's History of the Popes.
"I apprehend that any competent reader will interpret this passage as an assertion, in the first place, that Professor Ranke has refrained from quoting the Memoirs; secondly, that he has given as the reason of the alleged omission, that the author failed in certain necessary qualifications; and thirdly, that the necessary qualifications in which he was deficient were, both learning and study.
