d it so; and a learned controversialist in the North
thought it a shame that I did not leave the Church of England as much
as ten years sooner than I did. His nephew, an Anglican clergyman,
kindly wished to undeceive him on this point. So, in 1850, after some
correspondence, I wrote the following letter, which will be of
service to this narrative, from its chronological character:--

"Dec. 6, 1849. Your uncle says, 'If he (Mr. N.) will declare, sans
phrase, as the French say, that I have laboured under an entire
mistake, and that he was not a concealed Romanist during the ten
years in question' (I suppose, the last ten years of my membership
with the Anglican Church), 'or during any part of the time, my
controversial antipathy will be at an end, and I will readily express
to him that I am truly sorry that I have made such a mistake.'

"So candid an avowal is what I should have expected from a mind like
your uncle's. I am extremely glad he has brought it to this issue.

"By a 'concealed Romanist' I understand him to mean one, who,
professing to belong to the Church of England, in his heart and will
intends to benefit the Church of Rome, at the expense of the Church
of England. He cannot mean by the expression merely a person who in
fact is benefiting the Church of Rome, while he is intending to
benefit the Church of England, for that is no discredit to him
morally, and he (your uncle) evidently means to impute blame.

"In the sense in which I have explained the words, I can simply and
honestly say that I was not a concealed Romanist during the whole, or
any part of, the years in question.

"For the first four years of the ten (up to Michaelmas, 1839) I
honestly wished to benefit the Church of England, at the expense of
the Church of Rome:

"For the second four years I wished to benefit the Church of England
without prejudice to the Church of Rome:

"At the beginning of the ninth year (Michaelmas, 1843) I began to
despair of the Church of England, and gave up all clerical duty; and
then, what I wrote and did was influenced by a mere wish not to
injure it, and not by the wish to benefit it:

"At the beginning of the tenth year I distinctly contemplated leaving
it, but I also distinctly told my friends that it was in my
contemplation.

"Lastly, during the last half of that tenth year I was engaged in
writing a book (Essay on Development) in favour of the Roman Church,
and indirectly against the English; but even