A REPLY TO THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE'S `POLITICAL EXPOSTULATION.'

1875, 68pp, plus 4 pages of publisher's ads. Printed Wrps. Very light soiling, else VG. Gladstone, (1809-1898), served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times, and also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Those who liked him, and apparently there were many, referred to him as G. O. M., the Grand Old Man. Those who despised him, and again, there seemed to be many, in particular the followers of Benjamin Disraeli, claimed that the G. O. M. stood for God's Only Mistake. In 1874, he published a pamphlet entitled THE VATICAN DECREES IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE: A POLITICAL EXPOSTULATION. In it he claimed that Catholics had a divided loyalty between the Crown and the Pope, and he urged Catholics to reject papal infallibility. A few months later, in reply to his critics, which were numerous, he published a second pamphlet entitled VATICANISM: AN ANSWER TO REPROOFS AND REPLIES. This pamphlet was even more anti-Catholic, and contemptuous of the Papacy, claiming that the Pope wanted to destroy the rule of law and replace it with arbitray tyranny, and describing the Catholic Church as an Asian monarchy. This reply by Monsignor Capel, surely was only one of many taking Gladstone to task for his virulent anti-Catholic comments.…