The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-12-26 00:00:00

CRUELTY TO 11OhNED CATTLE.
The following pungent epistle will probably be new
to most of our' readers, and as, from its locality, it
may not be perfectly intelligible without some expla-
nation, we shall briefly mention the occasion upon
which it was written and the circumstances that ori-
ginated it.
The writer, a Mr. Reynolds, was an Irish Gentle-
man of good family and fortune, who held the com-
mission of, the peace for many years in the sister
country. His literary attainments were few, but he
possessed great natural quickness, and was remark-
able for a caustic irony of expression, which distin-
guished several fugitive
,pieces of which he was the
author, and of which the following letter may be
taken as a specimen. His temper, which naturally
was none of the best, was soured to morbid irrita-
bility by a painful asthmatic complaint, which allicted
him for the greater part of his life. The effervescence
of this angry spirit would occasionally boil over upon
those who happened to come in contact with him, and
particularly Upon his brother Magistrates, whose views
and proceedings he delighted to thwart and overturn
upon every occasion.
During the period of his magistracy, and but a
short time before the breaking out of the Irish rebel=
.lioo, to Ins, there was a description of marauders
io that country called Defenders, whose practices and
pursuits were somewhat similar to those of the more
modern Society of Ri yaw; zw. The Defenders were,
in time, put down, though no specific Statute had ever'
been enacted for the purpose ; and the reader should
bear in mind that the merely being a Defender was not,
in itself, an offence cognizable by law, or punishable,
Weis, when accompanied by a breach of some known
*Stole.

It happened, upon one occasion, that a farmer, who
lilted.% the county of Leitrim, discovered that one of.
his cows had been cut arid maimed in a shocking.
manner. At the same time, he found a letter which
the perpetrator of the outrage bad tied to the cow's
horn, in which he was threatened with personal
vengeance if he did not forthwith give up his
farm and leave the country. There was no direct
_clue to the offender, but the farmer's suspicion fall-
ing upon a person of bad character, who resided
near him, he lodged an infoimation against the object
of his suspicion, and had him taken up as a Defender.
The prisoner apprehending that the Magistrate, who
'had itsued the warrant, would'. not admit him to hail,
Prevailed upon the constables to brit* him before Mr.
Reynolds, by whom he was innately liberated, up-
on giving the necessary security to take his trial for
the alleged offence. A representation of these fact'
having been made to the then Lord Chancellor of-
Ireland (who was quite an Ultra in his way);
his Lordship, hastily, and as it would seem, unjustly,
erased Mr. Reynolds' name from the list of Magi-
strates. When Mr. Reynolds was apprised of the
fact, he determined to submit a statement of the
grounds upon which he ha.l acted ; and for this pur-
pose he obtained a letter of introduction to the Chan-:
cellor from the Governor of the County of Leitrim.
With this letter he repaired to Dublin and went to the'
house of his Lordship, who happened to be coming)
down stairs, followed by his valet, at the moment Mr.
Reynolds entered the hall. Upon seeing Reynolds,
whose person he knew. the Chancellor suddenly
turned into a parlour, accompanied by his valet,
to whom he gave orders to say that he, the Chancellor,
was not at home! a duty which the servant performed
with great rudeness, actually pushing Mr. Reynolds
out of the house, and shutting the door in his face.
These circumstances, which it must be confessed
,were of a very aggravating nature, drew forth an
epistle that will probably afford amusement to some
of our readers, though not couched exactly in such
„terms as lovers of the molls algae faeetum would ap-'
prove. The allusions to some particular occurrences
,are too obvious to require any explanation. -
TO LORD --.
Mr LORD—I received, with surprise and regret,
a letter signed " John Dyer," informing me that your
Lordship had been pleased to supersede me in the
Commission of the Peace for the counties of LEITRIM
and Roscommon. I say with surprise, because I wail
not conscious of any offence to warrant such a pro-
ceeding,—and I add with regret, because low as the
situation is (and low indeed it must be, depending
Upon the caprice of any individual), yet as it some-
times afforded me an opportunity of protecting inno-
cence and counteracting tyranny, I part it with
regret.
Your Lordship loved not the Constitution more thaw
I do. It has been the theme of my continued pane-
gyric; nor can even the unkind treatment which I
now receive at your Lordship's hands tend, in the re-
motest degree, to democratise my feelings; it will'
rather tend, indeed, to confirm me in my aristocrito
tic creed, that there is in men of mean descent a cer-
tain
ignobility which no honours oraitles can eradicate.
It is not, my Lord, in the radiance of the royal sun-
beam to give to the mushroom the fragrance of the rose,
and when we look to new men for that bland and
golden dignity of manners which constitutes the true
noblesse, we too frequently find a pinclitieci petulance
substituted in its stead.

When I waited upon your Lordship with a letter
from the Governor of the county in which its revert.,
resides, you, with an affected hauteur which very ill
became a man of yesterday, turned upon your heel
and refused to hear me in justification of my conduct.
Had your Lordship, like your father, been designed
for the Popish priesthood, you would have had the
benefit of a •St. Omers education, and consequently
have known mole decency and more good manners ;
but a giddy head I turned by looking downwards,
from a pinnacle to which an accidental concurrence
of fortunate circumstances had raised it; yet believe
me, my Lord, that in the highest point of your eleva-
tion, I never once conceived that—" an angel spoke ;"
on the contrary, I have always viewed you as the
character of a sweep, who, after clambering throufh
dirt, peeps out his sooty-coloured face, and, in a shrill
'Voice, proclaims to the gapingmultitude, ".here, here
lam !! !"
It has been stated, as matter of accusation, that I
bailed a man who was charged with being a Defender
(nothing further having been expressed in the com-
mittal), and-your Lordship, no doubt, is the heat judge
whether that be a sufficient ground for detaining the