The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-13 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES

Sir,—On reading the very acrimonious article in
the Birkenhead Intelligencer of Saturday morning,
respecting the police of that district, I certainly
think the reverend editor of that paper deserves a
severe castigation, for his excessive politeness, at
your hands. I always fancied that gentlemen,
professing such High Church and Tory opinions
as the reverend editor in question seems to do, were
particularly gentlemanly in their language and
writings, and left all vulgar and abusive expres-
sions to the " low Radicals." This, however,
seems to be totally ignored by the " GENTLEMAN "
who has certainly forgotten the words of our com-
mon Master—'- Blessed are the peacemakers ;'
for he seems to wish to stir up as much strife as
lays in his power, by calling on the police force
of Birkenhead to rush into legal proceed..
ings immediately, and very considerately hints
to them to lay their fellow townsmen under contri-
bution to assist in so laudable a pr,. ject. Such a
line of conduct might be tolerated in a pettifogging
lawyer, but is certainly, to say the least of it, very
reprehensible in a gentleman who professes to
preach " peace and good will" to all men Had the
reverend gentleman given the lie in such plain terms
to any individual either in public (I dont mean
" public house") or private company, lie might very
reasonably expect to have been soundly thrashed
for his impertinence, and his character as a clergy-
man suffered severely in the estimation of every
right thinking individual.
Apologising for thus troubling you, I remain, sir,
your obedient servant, A CONSTANT READER.

[ln pity, we shall decline the advice of our cor-
respondent. A " castigation" upon our "reverend"
libeller would perhaps lead t) consequences which
for the sake of those most dear to him we might
regret. We can well afford to forget and forgive the
ravings of a writer who could cram into a few lines
of type the following choice selection from a diction-
ary of " elegant extracts," which we willingly give
the benefit of our extensive circulation ; remarking
at the same time, that when the investigation now
pending into the conduct of the Birkenhead
police is concluded, the result will fully justify
all we have said. This reverend scribe, in re•
ference to our article of Wednesday, says it contains
an " equal amount of falsehood and calumny ;"
then we are " unprincipled writers ;" next, our
statements are a " tissue of malignant lying ;"
again, another fact is an "outrageous and barefaced
lie." Then, we cannot pen a " word of truth;" after
which we are guilty of" falsehood and slander." Now,
our object is a" more wanton, unprincipled, bigotted,
and scandalous attempt ;" then we are charged
with " fiendish tenacity to falsehood." We change

•
now to " a dishonest and base calumniator;
and then give utterance to " a loathsorne
catalogue of truthless assertions," which
in the next few lines rises into " unparalelled
falsehoods." Then " comes
,the first lie in the
paragraph," and the "diabolical attack" 101'
lows. Now, we have recourse "to miserable
subterfuge and paltry evasion," coupled with
" unwarrantable calumny," which swells, in another
line, to " most diabolical charges," but agai3
degenerates into "insolent audacity," and at lengtha
reaches the elevation of "an unmitigated ono
unadulterated lie." Well done, reverend editor ! •
Write in this style, preach in this style, and y! otl
name will be handel down to posterity. nu"
remember, abuse is a poor substitute "for argil'
meat, and it is only a bad cause that needs it.]