The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-23 00:00:00

The following has been published by a contempo
rary :

" 6, Carlton-gardens, Dec. 22, 1852

" My dear Phillimore,—lt causes me no surprise to
learn that the unwarrantable statement of Lord Derby,
in the House of Lords, on Monday night, to the effect
that his defeat on Thursday last was the result of a
concert or combination between the friends of Sir
Robert Peel and other political parties, should have
caused much soreness among those who supported me
at the late contested election for Oxford. For they will
no.doubt remember that I avowed before and during
that election a wish to find the policy and measures of
the Government such as would justify me in giving them
my support.
" That wish I sincerely entertained, and I am ready
to show it by reference to all my subsequent acts ; but
the main question, one really of personal honour as well
as of political consistency, is this—whether the concert
or combination alleged to have taken place for the pur-
pose of ejecting Lord Derby's Government from office
is a fact or a fiction ?
" I have not the slightest hesitation in stating to you
that it is a fiction.
"I give you this assurance absolutely as regards myself,
and with all the confidence, as regards my immediate
friends, that one man can have in the veracity of an-
other. I shall denounce it as a fiction upon every legi-
timate occasion that may offer itself to me, and shall
complain of the propagation, from such a source, of a
statement so injurious and so entirely unsupported by
legitimate evidence.
"It was entirely unsupported-by such evidence, for
the only presumption in its favour was this, that we
voted against the budget of Mr. Disraeli in strict con-
formity with every principle of finance we had professed
through our political lives, and with the policy of former
finance Ministers from the time of Mr. Pitt, against the
'new principles' and ' new policies' which Mr. Disraeli
declared at Aylesbury his intention to submit to the
House of Commons, a pledge which I admit that he
completely redeemed.
" You are quite at liberty to make known the purport
of this letter, and especially, in its full breadth, the de-
, nial it contains.

"I remain, most sincerely yours,
" W. E. GLADSTONE

"Robert Phillimore, Esq."

FOUR MEN DROWNED.--A melancholy accident oc-
curred on Friday morning off Gosford, resulting in the
loss of four Cockenzie fishermen. A boat named the
Rising Sun, left Cockenzie early in the morning,
manned by five fishermen, in pursuit of their hazardous
calling. The wind blew a strong gale from the north-
east ; and it is supposed that a gust caught the sail,
capsizing the boat. Three of the fishermen on board
were drowned in a short time ; the two remaining men
managed to hold on by the capsized boat, but one of
them, after keeping his place for some time, was at last
' washed away by a large wave. The other man, however,
got upon the bottom of the boat, where he remained,
in spite of the buffeting of the waves ; and the signal of
distress which he raised was fortunately seen about ten
o'clock in the forenoon by a Fisherrow boat's crew,
while running before the gale. They at once bore down,
hove a rope, which was eagerly grasped by the half-
drowned man, who, after fastening a coil of it round his
body, plunged into the sea, and was hauled on board in
a very exhausted state. His name was found to be
Archibald Horn, and he was shortly afterwards brought
into Cockenzie by the fishermen who rescued him.—
Edinburgh Advertiser.