A NARRATIVE OF THE REFORMATION AT BIRR, IN THE KING'S COUNTY, IRELAND; OF WHICH THE AUTHOR WAS THE HONOURED INSTRUMENT; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE WAY IN WHICH HE WAS CONVERTED FROM POPERY TO AND OF THE REASONS WHY HE LEFT HIS CHURCH AND CONGREGATION CHURCH OF THIS COUNTRY. BY THE REV. MICHAEL CROTTY, LATE CURATE IN THE DIOCESE OF RIPON, YORKSHIRE. Second Edition. LONDON: THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. SINCE the publication of the first edition of the following Narrative, circumstances have occurred in reference to many of the parties mentioned therein, which might call for a thorough revision; but as an exponent of the feelings and honest convictions of the writer, and as a plain statement of facts, it has been considered advisable on the whole not to make any material alteration in the original frame and constitution of the work. The author, in whose breast no anger durable or vehement has ever been kindled, but by what he considered as tyranny and persecution, wars not with the dead-they are gone to their final account-let their ashes repose in the silence and oblivion of the tomb. Among the many useful and instructive lessons he has learned from the Protestant religion, since his abandonment of popery, now more than twenty years, the author of the following Narrative has been taught this most important one, namely, the necessity of self-reliance; and that the man, who will not exert his own strength and abilities, cannot apply for aid either to Heaven or to his friends. With the blessing of God upon his humble labours, with truth and justice on his side, with a moral courage that has been |