LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S
THE following Letters with some others on the same subject, were written in the latter part of the year 1801, and the first months of 1802, though they have since that time beek revised, and, in some respects, altered. They grew out of a controversy, which the present writer was obliged to sustain against an eminent author, a Prebendary of the Cathedral and the Chancellor of the Diocese of Winchester, who had personally challenged him to the field of argument, in a work, called Reflections on Popery. That controversy having made some noise in public, and even in the Houses of Parliament, particularly in the Upper House, where the then Lord Chancellor (1) and a predecessor of your Lordship, at that time the light and glory of the Established Church, (2) expressed opposite opinions on the issue of it, certain powerful personages expressed an earnest wish for its termination. For this purpose the usual method of silencing authors was first resolved upon with respect to the writer, and a Catholic Gentleman of name, still living, was commissioned to sound him on the business: but, in conclusion, it was thought most advisable to employ the influence which the Prelate alluded to had justly acquired over him by advocating his cause in Parliament.
(1) The Right Hon, the Farl of Loughborough.
(2) The Right Rev. Dr. Horsley, successively Bishop of tit. Davidv, Rochester, and St. Asaph's.