About three weeks after the despatch of my Defence, and the testimonials from the magistrates, I received a negative reply from the right reverend Board.* In this reply no farther weight is given to the testimony of the magistrates of Grottkau, and the declaration of the inhabitants, than that they silenced the false accusations of Kaspar Hoffmann; and the representatives of Christian love and justice in the diocese of Breslau do not condescend to offer satisfaction for the annoyances to which I and mine had thereby been subjected. Although they might not consider themselves called upon to pay me a just debt, yet surely the united voice of an entire town was worthy of some little deference. But here we touch upon the second curse by which the hierarchy overlays the people. Even as the thraldom of the inferior clergy, in regard to their superiors, annihilates their manliness of character and self-respect, so the thraldom of the congregation in their relation to the clergy, keeps the great mass of the Catholic people in darkness and insensibility. That neither the congregations nor the inferior clergy have always been in this state of thraldom, is well known. It has been induced by their torpidity and ignorance. But had they never before enjoyed a state of greater freedom, the present times imperiously demand it. * "In reply to your remonstrances of the 5th and 10th of the month, you are hereby informed, that as you do not distinctly deny the authorship of the the article 'Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,' our judgment of the 30th of January remains unaltered.--Latussek, v. Ploto, Elsler, Freis, Canons. "Breslau, February 18th, 1843." With my convictions, to have remained one moment longer in my office, after receiving the answer of the right reverend Board, would have dishonoured me. How could I have met my fellow-citizens, and spoken to them of the unfettered moral dignity of man, while I myself had sacrificed religious conviction in a pitiful and cowardly manner, for a bit of bread, secured to me by my condition as a Romish priest? This was my fixed determination:--rather the grave than dishonouring punishment--rather starvation than self-degradation, and injury of the rights of my fellow-citizens and colleagues! In order, however, that I might leave no method untried of obtaining justice, I wrote to the Council, stating that 1 should appeal to the still unappointed bishop. AUDIENCE OF THE BISHOP.