Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1834, by THOMAS LATIMER, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE story of Father Butler is only a sketch adapted to the limits of a small volume like

the present.

But in support of its truth, as far as it goes, the author appeals with confidence to those who are acquainted with the religious prac tices and opinions of the Irish peasantry. Not, indeed, that we would undervalue the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle, either in point of integrity or morality, for we can appreciate truth wherever it is found, and hold in high estimation many, who have indeed been ornaments to society-burning and shining lights in the Church of God upon earth, and are now the inheritors of a free salvation in heaven, through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.