19 FEBRUARY 1983, Page 18

Sir: Mr Waugh is old enough now to be told

that not everyone numbers the command- ments in the same way that he does. He is obviously the victim of an over-sheltered Catholic upbringing. Catholics reckon the commandments, like the Psalms, different- ly from Protestants, but by some shift of division come out with the same total.

It might not matter if he thinks Mr Benyon foolish for counting Sabbath observance as the fourth, but Mr Waugh had better be more careful in distinguishing the sixth and seventh, which he would know as adultery and theft.

Christopher Howse

Catholic Herald, Bunhill Row, London EC I