SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twentieth day of April, in the fortieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, J. M. Mason, of the said L. S. district, hath deposited in this office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Authour and Proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A Plea for Sacramental Communion on Catholick Principles. By J. M.

Mason, D. D."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authours and Proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an act, entitled An Act, supplementary to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authours and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical and other Prints.

THERON RUDD,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

So long a time has elapsed since the ensuing volume was promised, that the authour owes an explanation of the causes which have retarded its appearance.

The greater part of what was at first intended for the press had been prepared nearly two years before the proposals for printing it were issued. In the mean time the subject had undergone extensive discussion, and had excited inquiry in several parts of the United States. The manuscript was found, upon revision, to cover too narrow ground for the range which the question had taken; and the whole was to be written over. This labour, falling in with numerous and urgent avocations pressing upon an impaired state of health, proceeded, and could proceed, but slowly. It was performed at short and broken intervals: The work swelled, by degrees, beyond its anticipated limits, was interrupted more than once by the authour's absence from home; and