25 JUNE 1887, Page 15

"TB r RHONE OF THE FISHERMAN BUILT BY THE CARPENTER'S

SON."

[TO TKO EDIFON OF III "arremoa...] BIR,—I think that you allow to those whose works are reviewed in the Spectator a single privilege. It is that of correcting a misstatement of fact. Now, in a very short notice, containing only eighteen lines, of my book, "The Throne of the Fiaherman Built by the Carpenter's Son," which appeared in your issue of June 403, the writer of the notice says :—" On Mr. Allies's argument we shall make bat one criticism,—that the references are not sufficiently continuous. 'In one of his letters St. Augustine speaks of the Principate which has always existed in the Apostolic See.' Surely we ought to be able to verify so important a statement." Certainly. This quotation is from p. 337; but at p. 100 I had given the words of St. Augustine in the original, together with the place in which they oormr,—his forty-third letter. I had presumed this to be present to the mind of the reader. It is plain that I had presumed on too much.

May not an author feel it hard that one only criticism should be made on an argument extending over several hundred pages, which is an imputation of not giving references, when in the very instance quoted the reference and the words of the original