The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-01 00:00:00

THE WINDHAM CASE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—Since my conduct as testamentary guardian
to my nephew, Mr. W. F. Windham, and my mo-
tives in being a party to the proceedings so long
before the public, have been somewhat roughly
handled, I know that I shall not appeal in vain to
your justice to publish the following letters
" 48, Eaton-place, Jan. 30, 1862.
My dear Sir,—lt has been my lot in the course
of my public career to have imputations cast upon
my professional conduct.

" I have habitually submitted to such imputa-
tions in silence, trusting to the judgment of my

nnperiors for their contradiction, in which I have

hitherto not been disappointed.

" But when a man's personal honour is assailed,
it becomes a duty, no less to himself than to his

friends to meet and repel the attack as publicly as

it has been made.

" During the progress of the unhappy inquiry
before the Commissioner in Lunacy, ordered

by the Lords Justices, and in which you are
aware I have been concerned as one of the peti-
tioners, charges of the worst description have been
made against me, and even Lord Alfred Hervey
and Mr. Hook have not escaped.
" These charges may be classed under two heads.
" 1. That I neglected my duty to my nephew as
bis testamentary guardian.

" 2. That I was influenced by unworthy motives
in being a party to the inquiry.
" I have no desire to bandy words with profes-
sional gentlemen who have permitted themselves
to be the instruments of calumniating me. I need
not stay to inquire whether they have exceeded the
licence justly allowed to counsel in such cases,
neither do I wish to enter into a controversy with
that portion of the public press which has thought
fit to adopt and support their statements.
" I content myself with simply appealing to you,
who, as the legal guardian of my nephew, have had
better means of judging of my conduct and motives
than perhaps any one else, whether the imputations
cast upon me are borne out by your experience and
observation.
" You will be able to state whether any effort
which affection could dictate was neglected on my
part to guard the youth from the consequences of
his fatal weakness ; whether every endeavour was
not used and persisted in by me to induce him to
listen to your admonitions, and to rescue him from
the hands of those who were only bent on leading
him astray.
" And when his minority was drawing to a close,
and there seemed but too much reason to fear that
the advice bestowed on him had failed to make a
Zoe impression, it will be in your recollection that,
in strict accordance with your suggestion, I intro-
duced him to a most respectable London solicitor,
Mr. John Jackson (of the firm of Young, Fladgate,
and Jackson, Essex-street, Strand)—a man wholly
unconnected with myself—that he might protect
his interests.
" You may remember that you firmly refused to
name anyone; but I think I am justified in saying
that, when you were afterwards informed that Mr.
John Jackson had been selected, you approved.
" If I may justly appeal to your experience re-
specting my conduct as a guardian, may I not, with
equal confidence, ask your judgment as to the
motives which actuated the course I subsequently
adopted, when I found that my nephew was plung-
ing more rapidly into ruin and misery than our
most anxious forebodings had apprehended ? At
least you will be able, if I am in error, to contradict
my assertion that I consulted you as to the steps to
be taken whenruin appeared imminent, and to state
if, at that time, when with reluctance I consented
to adopt the only remedy which remained, you be-
lieved me to have been animated by other than a
single-minded desire to rescue my nephew from the
grasp of those who were mercilessly preying on his
weakness, and, through that weakness, on his pro-
perty.

" I conceived that some objection might have
been raised to my asking for your testimony on these
points while the issue of the inquiry in question
pended, but now that that issue can no longer be
prejudiced by any expression of opinion on your
part I have less hesitation in so doing, feeling con-
fident that you will not deny to a public man who
has been unjustly abused those means of vindication
which are in your power.—Believe me to remain,
my dear sir, yours faithfully,
" C. A. WINDHAM, Major-General.
" To Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood."

" 31, Great George-street, Jan. 31, 1862

"My dear Sir,—Having ascertained that the in-
quiry as to your nephew has terminated, I have no
hesitation in answering the questions on which you
seem to refer to me for an opinion.
" 1. Whether you neglected your duty to your
nephew as his testamentary guardian ?
" I have no hesitation in saying that in this, the
most difficult case which I have ever met with of
the numerous wards of court, I have derived the
greatest assistance from your solicitor while you
were absent on duty in India, and from your
individual attention to your nephew's interests
since your return. From the circumstance of your
absence in India, I soon felt the necessity of adding
to the guardians appointed by the will of Mr.
Windham's father, viz., the young man's mother
and yourself. With her consent and yours I added
Lord Alfred Hervey, and Mr. Hook, who had
married the young man's aunt. I can speak to the
deep interest which they took in hik welfare. Their
trouble was incessant, as was, indeed, my own.
His mother, also, though at times taking different
views u 3 to his travelling and the like subordinate
matters, never failed to attending to the proceeds.
I required every possible help I could receive in ap-
pointing tutors to take charge of him. You did not
return to England till many of our difficulties had
been encountered, though we all failed to solve
them. I recollect your letters from India being
read to me, in which you were most anxious, if it

wero found possible, that he should be sufficiently
educated for a commission in the army ; and every
effort was made to secure this desirable object, but
in vain, owing to his weakness of mind.

" When you returned to England you evinced
the most lively interest in his welfare, and fre-
quently attended personally at the discussions
that occurred as to the difficulties attendant
on every attempt to improve the young man's
character; so did also his other guardians. 1 can
most conscientiously say that, in every respect, you
evinced the highest interest in your ward's welfare.
" Shortly before he same of age you consulted me
118 to the course we had better pursue in consequence
of his having fcrmed a connexion which has since
ended so disastrously. At your request, earnestly
pressed upon me, 1 sew the young man, and gave
him my advice in writing (as I found he did not
correctly report anything that passed). I advised
him at once to appoint a solicitor to arrange his affairs,
and to travel abroad (to avoid bad connexions).
He asked mu to recommend a solicitor. I declined
doing this, and told him to consult his guardians.
Ile spoke very highly of you, amd I said that he
had better consult you. You, on his doing so, re-
commended Mr. Jackson. The advice I gave was
entirely founded on my
own judgment, and he
promised that ho would follow it. Ido not think
any guardian has ever better discharged his duty to
a ward while under my charge than you did.
14 2, your next question relates to your having
had bad motives imputed to you as to the late in-
quiry.
" I cannot, of course, fathom any man's motives,
but I am well aware that in every case of inquiry
as to lunacy which is opposed it is quite of course
to impute sordid motives to those who promote thi
inquiry. 1 beg to offer no opinion whatever on this
inquiry, its propriety, or its result; but I feel it a
duty to you to say that I always regarded the con-
duct of yourself and the other guardians and rela-
tives (other than the mother) in instituting the in-
quiry to be merely the natural sequel to all the
interest you had all shown in the youth's welfare,
and as a last attempt to save him from the natural
result of his disastrous marriage. Regard being
had to his many eccentricites, I should have
thought the concurrence of his whole family
on both sides, except his mother, would have
exempted you from any possibility of seriousim-
pression being made by the charge of interested


motives, whether the step taken 'Weft Wise or un- I
wise. I ought in justice to you to add, since t ]
observed during the inquiry an alleged statethent
by Mr. Windham to a witness of my being your
bosom friend,' that, in fact, I have never had the
honour of seeing you more than once n society—
viz , at Mr. Hook's ; but I never sa w you at all
before you returned from India, and my only other
interviews with you have been when you presented
yourself at my court, or chambers, in the interest
of your ward. I write, therefore, in no sense as
your friend, but in answer to your appeal.—Yours
faithfully, W. P. WOOD.
"Major-General Windham, C B.
" You are at liberty to make any use you think
fit of this letter."
I have nothing further to add but that I wish it
to bo fully understood that I was not persuaded to
consider my nephew a fit subject for the proceed-
ings in question until some time subsequent to his
marriage—not, in short, until an accumulation of
facts connected with the management of himself and
his property had been pressed upon my attention.
When, therefore, I called upon him shortly after his
marriage, and offered him a small piece of inter-
mixed land, much coveted by his father, at the
price (L 1,000) at which it had been bought a short
time previous to his coming of age, I did so as the
beet proof I could give him that I was not inclined
to be unreasonably angry with his conduct.—l have
the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,
-C. A. WINDHAM, Major-General.