[TO THE EDITOR 01 THE "spEcrerox. - 1 SIR,—Mr. Chas. 0. Haines's
letter in your issue of Septem- ber 17th reveals the mentality of a type of Roman Catholic too common everywhere, which I have always suspected to be particularly prevalent in America. Mr. Haines's remarks about " Modernism," and his suggestion that Father Tyrrell's feeble intellect made him only fit for parish work, are too silly to notice. But I must protest against the charge of " incredible vanity " made against a man than whom I never met any one more free from that failing. Father Tyrrell never expected Roman Catholics to follow him ; he knew too well the "docile flock of sheep," as Pius X. has called them. I would suggest to Mr. Haines that in the future he might restrict his slanders to the living, who can reply to them. I know that it is useless to ask an orthodox Roman Catholic to abstain altogether from slandering those who have committed the crime of disagreeing with him. These gentlemen who are in full possession of the absolute truth think themselves, perhaps naturally, such fine fellows that they regard any difference from them as a personal insult, just as they look upon a "conversion" as a tribute to their superior intelli-
[As we printed Mr. Haines's letter we cannot refuse a hearing to Mr. Dell. But though we agree with the sense of his letter, we much regret the acerbity with which he writes of a brother Roman Catholic.—En. Spectator.]
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