3. That it was signed by little boys and little girls and by persons who did not know what they were signing.

4. That it purported to be signed by persons whose names were subscribed without their knowledge.

5. That it was taken to public houses, where signatures were obtained thereto.

This challenge was declined. It was well known by its promoters that this address would no more bear scrutiny for what it professed to be, than the "monster petition," which was carried on the backs of so many porters into the House of Commons, and when examined and reported on, discarded as a worthless thing. But, my Lord, if we look into the address itself, we shall find it not only self-condemnatory, but casting no little ridicule upon all those who signed it. This I regret, as amongst them are some respectable individuals, for whom I have long entertained both regard and esteem. I have a copy of the address before me, which bears date the 29th of April, 1852. Mr. Bennett "read in," as already stated, on the 25th of January, and he did not come to reside till some weeks later; yet we find that by the end of April his powers of fascination had produced so great a result, that he had "endeared himself" to all these 1032 individuals. But the main object of this address was to assure Mr. Bennett that they, the subscribers, had the fullest reliance on his being able" clearly to refute the calumnies and falsehoods with which his character and intentions had been so unceasingly and so unsparingly assailed." And what was the great burden of these calumnies and falsehoods? Why the Kissingen story! which Mr. Bennett now admits was not a calumny and a falsehood, but a positive and undoubted fact! Truly it would have been much better for my friends to whom I have above alluded, if he had earlier made this avowal, but that did not then suit his purpose.

CHARGE OF GARBLING QUOTATIONS.

We will now proceed to the old story of the "garbled quotations." As before stated, we allowed ourselves but one

clear day to draw up and sign the Protest we sent to the Patroness. In this brief space of time Mr. Bennett's works, which were known to us chiefly through the reviewers, had to be sought from a distance-for our town was situated too far in the west to be possessed of such novelties-and when the books arrived, we had to peruse them, and to make choice of the passages most suitable for quotation. Of two selected, one headed a paragraph; another occurred after a few preliminary words, viz., "And so it comes to pass, that." By some inadvertency, as we explained to the Bishop a few days later, and before our error had been detected by any but ourselves," in the suddenness of the emergency" we substituted the sentence to which the preparatory words did not apply, instead of the other to which they did apply. The preparatory words were these, "Our third extract is a sentence which heads a paragraph occuring in a subsequent chapter of the volume," (see Protest,) and the sentence intended to follow was this, " In conversion of the unbeliever, or reclaiming of the sinner; in argument to show the truth, and in persuasion to move to holiness, it is all the same, the Bible, as such, is of no use, unless it be accompanied, at least, if not preceded by the church."

Whilst Mr. Bennett was eating commons as a student at Christ Church, I was doing the like as a commoner of Exeter College, in the same University; and among the studies which probably occupied the time of us both at that period was the rhetoric of Aristotle. Now I would wish Mr. Bennett to recal what the Grecian sage says in his second book respecting exaggeration, for he has adopted, in the present instance, one of the fallacious modes of reasoning which this rhetorician has placed among his “ topics." « Αλλος δε τοπος, το δεινώσει κατασκευάζειν, η ανασκευάζειν,”—another element is the doing away or establishing a point by exaggeration. 2 b. 24 c. One slight error which we originally made as above in our protest, in extracting a sentence from Mr. Bennett's writings, was paraded as an example of our dealings with them all, in local flying sheets, in his Pastoral, and by his friends in the House of Commons; and on each

occasion received first an explanation, and then a refutation, that it was not an example of the rest. And here again, in his Second Letter, we find the same story brought forward, and the same conclusions unblushingly deduced, so we must enter anew upon the explanation and refutation, and if the remarks should be regarded as a little severe, let the following illustration of the subject be considered as an endeavour to place the matter in such a light that this ghost may be laid for ever.

Can it be believed that so trivial an inadvertence as the one above cited is the only mistake with which we can be charged in the various extracts which we have made from Mr. Bennett's writings, when that gentleman, after accusing us in general terms of using "garbled quotations" from his writings, and "perverting his words," (p. 31,) brings forward this in one place as an "instance," and in another as a "specimen" of the rest of the subjects of the protest! (p. 33.) What other inference can be deduced from the expressions "instance" and "specimen," but that other similar mistakes were to be found in our quotations. If the Vicar were to go into our market-place on a Wednesday morning, he would see a number of West-country yeomen handing small canvass bags filled with grain from one to another. These bags contain what the farmers call samples, just equivalent to his term specimen. Upon the faith of these samples, ten, twenty, or fifty quarters of grain often change owners in a few minutes; and if the purchaser, upon examination, discovered that his bargain did not correspond in quality with the sample shown him, the vender would be scouted from the market, -but the Vicar still preaches in the parish church! The only difference between our case, and the imaginary one of the purchaser is this, that we suffer because that which is offered as our sample is worse than the remainder, and he suffers because it is better.

FROME SAID TO BE A NEGLECTED PARISH.

Before we enter on the consideration of the acknowledgment so tardily made by Mr. Bennett, that the report of his attending the Roman Catholic services at Kissingen was correct, and discuss his extraordinary boldness in attempting a justification of such conduct, we must clear the way by adverting to some incidental remarks which appear in this portion of his letter. We will first refer to a slur upon his predecessors and others, who have ministered before him in this town, and then our observations relating to mere local matters will be nearly completed. In page 69 we find he expresses fears that something mentioned above" is too great a demand on the general feelings of a parish neglected and misused as that of Frome has been so many years."

This, of course, is a severe reflection upon those who have officiated in this parish during a long period, but if merited, should be borne meekly. But let us go to facts, and give a brief review of the principal ministrations here, while the late Vicar held the living. He was for more than thirty years a non-resident, and during this period the vicarage house was occupied by six curates. Two of these gentlemen were preferred to livings by the late Bishop: another, who now possesses a Rectory, has been for some years the Bishop's Inspector of Schools for this diocese; a fourth is the Principal of the Military School at Chelsea; a fifth left us on being appointed to a living under public patronage in the North; and the last is the "popular Curate" of whom we have already heard. We must add to these biographical sketches a notice of the four Incumbents who have held the two perpetual Curacies which were formed in the parish during this period. Two of them are still at their posts, and therefore require no further mention; of the two others, one held Christ Church for many years, was a Rural Dean, and well known and much respected in the diocese at large, up to the time when he was suddenly removed from the sphere of his usefulness by death. His last words are recorded on his monument, "None but Christ:"-not the Church, not St.

Peter, but his Redeemer alone was able to sustain him in that trying hour. His successor, who was also appointed to the office of Rural Dean, was preferred by the Bishop of Salisbury, acting for the late Bishop of Bath and Wells, to a Vicarage in this county. From the circumstances under which these clergymen quitted Frome, we might a priori infer that they had not so neglected and misused the parish as Mr. Bennett's letter would lead the public to infer, otherwise the direction, on the avoidance of a benefice, "detur optimo," must have been grossly violated, even under episcopal patronage: to say nothing of the responsible appointments which some of these clergymen now hold. My position, however, will be more fully established when I state the advancement made by the Church in the spiritual condition of the town during their ministrations; that is, when I argue a posteriori.

The late Vicar was instituted in 1813, and five years afterwards a new church, called Christ Church, was consecrated in his parish, when a vast concourse of people assembled to witness an event then so uncommon. The whole sum for the building and endowment, such as it is, was raised by private subscription, as the National grant of a million for such purposes was not made till the following year. In 1824 our handsome and spacious National School rooms were erected. Ten years later a commodious School-house, &c. was built in a hamlet three miles distant from the parish church, and about the same time another School-room was built in a suburb of the town, at the expense of a private family, who still continue to educate in it 70 or 80 children. A second new church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was added to the town in the year 1838, and by the untiring attention and zeal of the Incumbent, who has ministered there ever since, a large school-house, where 150 children during the week and 250 on Sundays, receive instruction, has been erected near it; an ample burying-ground has also been procured, and large additions made to the previously confined parsonage house. A handsome school-house, of two stories, capable of accommodating 250 children, was built by the exertions of the late Incumbent of Christ Church, in 1844, and