On his return from the East Brownson finds a copy of the Michigan Catholic containing a report of his lecture at the Church of which he is pastor, on February 2, 1890. He is reported as saying, "I say this with due deference to the writer of the preface to the Souvenir Volume of the Catholic Congress, whose unproved statements are worthy only of such consideration as the authority of the writer as a man of observation and culture can give them." The statements are undoubtedly those made by Brownson, that Catholics are less educated than non-Catholics in English-speaking countries; that the mass of Catholics are comparatively uneducated; and that the graduates of Catholic institutions of learning are inferior in literary and scientific scholarship to those trained in other schools. That these statements are not proved in the Introduction is unquestioned, but the expression 'unproved statements' would seem susceptible of another meaning: namely, statements that cannot be proved or false statements. Brownson therefore inquires of Dowling how he is to understand these words. Objection has been made elsewhere to the same passage in his Introduction, but he did not regard a discussion of the comparative merits of Catholic and non-Catholic education in this country as likely to be beneficial. But when the objection is made in the pulpit of the parish church to which Brownson belongs and by the pastor of that church, who demands proof of the statements made, he feels bound to attempt such proof, even at the risk of saying much he would otherwise leave unsaid. A first draft of this letter in Brownson's handwriting is included. :: III-3-d A.L.S. 5pp. 12mo.