The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-26 00:00:00

rouibßl •
hs
the y OriOn
following
CANTERBURY ELECTION._
wN.EbaLve lbteoeni/r/eLciLtioisteAd NtDo

tettor :

TO TRE ELECTORS OF CANTERBURY.
Gentlemen,—ln much as Colonel Romilly hes
_lnasmuch
an address, " Which I shall sib •
thought proper to
stein from characterising," lam reluctantly compelled*
h 'the mazes of a difference which I
u
i
to follow him through
and
for ever at an end.
had hoped was at
I had hoped sothe more, because I had been led to
believe that our dispute terminated in the common for-
inality which Colonel Romilly and myself went through
on Friday last, for
which I sincerely feel that an apology
is due o you, gentlemen, in the present temper of Bri-
tish t
opinion at least it was not my fault if British
grotionpdoinon
atila_t cceaaion was profaned, and nothing but
the insuperb
scruples of my gallant colleague " for
1e
private end family reasons of his own" against an issue
abroad, prevent
showing
that deference to
the general w
thinking
in this country which I
feel that youhoea,eed of me from
have a right to exact.
.
At any rate, am confident that you will approve of the
feeling in which 1 met my adversary's second hall-way,
when, with honourable promptitude, he expressed his
anxiety to me on Friday morning that thenceforward,
throughout the contested election, all bad blood and all
BF-feeling might cease to exist.
Colonel Romilly, however, has since thought it expo.
dient to re-open the whole question. First of all by his
insisting upon the publication of " the minutes of a dif-
ference,' to which Captain Vivian, on my part, was
Strongly opposed, and to which he only, after long
delays and grave objections, finally consented; and, se-
condly, by the address now lying before mo, which is
very imperfectly correct.
My gallant colleague states " that he had no commu-
nication with me previous to the election of 1850." I
never said that he had; but I assorted, what he does not
contradict, that I wrote to the chairman of the meeting
which introduced hie), for the first time, to the electors
of Canterbury, calling upon all my friends to support
him. Colonel Romilly goes on to say, that " his being
then elected " was not, in his belief, owing to my sup-
port. I believe that it was so owing; and a reconcile-
ment between these two contrary beliefs' is obviously
impossible. I am glad, however, that Colonel Readily
does not deny, if he somewhat ungraciously acknow-
ledges, my assistance, in his phrase, " The fuct of that
support I am ready to admit." My gallant colleague
goes on to state,—" On the subject of the now approach-
ing election I never had any formal interview with Mr.
SmYtho." Here, again, I never contended that he had.
"It is true that, having mot me on several occasions, he
(-fir. Smythe) has originated conversations with me on
the subject." Now, the point of this sentence consists
in the word which I have ventured to italicise.
It is precisely my charge against Colonel Romilly that
he did allow me to originateconversations on the coming
election. My spoken words were these:—" At any rate
it was under the hallucination that our coalition, as I
had heard nothing to the contrary, still subsisted, that,
directly after the certainty of an immediate dissolution,
I spoko to my colleague in the sense of making imme.
diate and joint preparations."
Colonel Ronsilly remarks, very truly, that " Mr.
Smythe appeared to be annoyed, and expressed himself
warmly on the occasion," but the gallant officer is under
a complete misapprehension when he continues—"but
he
afterwards distinctly admitted to sae that I bad acted
towards him fairly and Openly in the matter." The
matter to which I alluded in these expressions had no
reference whatever to Colonel Romilly's general conduct
towards myself; they were simply used in courteous Sc. of a letter which Colonel Romilly had sent
to me, intiTating his intention to hold a meeting of his
hinds in Canterbury; and had I known that at that
meeting. Sir William Somerville's name was to be pro-
posed, I certainly should not have complimented Colonel
Romilly either upon his openness or his frankness,
There is but one more point in my colleague's address
en which I &Aro to animadvert. Not, pethaps, with-
out an object, he seeks to impress upon your mind that
at
lam animated by some spirit of " vengeance,, which
say
word he 'has carefully isolated Isom tho context of
Speech of the 17th.
But there is no one BMOl3g you who 035 not per"