Honour on crutches..
Brown, William.
Glasgow: : Printed by William Lang, 62 Bell-Street.,
1822..
The title is expanded on p. 3 to "Honour on Crutches; or, a challenge of thoughts and intentions."
A pamphlet which printed, in full, a brief exchange of letters between William Brown of Greenockmains, Muirkirk, and Alexander Aird of Crossflatt, Muirkirk, in which Aird accuses Brown in a letter, dated 26 November 1821, of uttering defamatory words at the last meeting of the Muirkirk Debating Society. The alleged words were that "clergymen were better adepted [sic] for Justice of the Peace then sheep smearer, or in otherwords, then one whose fingers were dipt in tarr." And Aird assumed that he was "the person intitled the sheep smearer" referred to by Brown. The latter confirms that it was he who spoke the words at the Society meeting and Aird immediately proposes a duel as the only solution. Brown responds with a witty putdown to which Aird does not reply. Aird's letters are printed with a number of spelling mistakes, intended to highlight his lack of education and low social standing. The final two letters of Brown, dated 17 December, 1821 and 17 April, 1822, remain unanswered by Aird, the final letter announcing Brown's intention to publish the correspondence in view of Aird's failure to apologise to Brown. The final three pages of the pamphlet are devoted to "Notes" by Brown explaining the history of the Muirkirk Debating Society (instituted in 1820 with fortnightly meetings to discuss "questions unconnected with religion and politics"), sheep smearing and duelling.
Honor
Scotland Glasgow.