The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-17 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMER•

Sir,—ln your journal of the 10th inst., appears a tele"
graphic dispatch announcing an insurrection in Milan; and
underneath, in the same column, a document which you
state " purports to be from Kossuth," and to which is ap-
pended the name of that gentleman.
Now, sir, M. Kossuth either did write that document, or
he did not. If he did, and you have published it without
his authorisation, you have committed, by all the laws of
honour in this land, a dishonourable act. If he did not
write it, you have committed, by the laws of justice in
this land, a criminal act. I charge you with the commit-
tal of both. You are guilty of the latter, and the latter,
like a parenthesis, embraces the former.

You have published that document without any authori-
sation from the man whose name is subscribed to it ; and
upon the day following, in an additional article, you have
declared its authenticity, as a proclamation addressed by
M. Kossuth from Bayswater, for the purpose of engaging
the Lombard and Hungarian patriots in the late insurrec-
tion at Milan.

As such, sir, in the name of M. Kossuth, I disavow the
document. I pronounce it to be a forgery.
It remains with M. Kossuth to bring you before tho bar
of the law. It has become my duty to arraign you before
the tribunal of public opinion.
I charge you, then, with having given utterance to $
forged document, which was calculated to reflect with a
damning influence upon the fame of its reputed author.
Such conduct is in any case culpable. In yours it is inex-
cusable, since you daily tell us that " whatever is intended
for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address
of the writer."

But this is not all, sir. In the editorial referred to you
take occasion to speak of the man whose name has been
thus abused in a tirade of vengeful invective, whose ept•
thets I, as a gentleman, shall not condescend to reproduce.
Calling the false proclamation " bombastic fustian," yob
hate charged M. Kossuth with aiding to incite the late in-
surrection in Milan, and thereby causing the wanton shed-
'
ding of blood—of " hallooing on the wretched victims to 1
certain destruction, while he himself enjoys the most per-
feet personal security under the guardianship of British
law."

This is a serious charge, and, if not true, a slander which,
by the mildest construction must be termed both cruel and
atrocious. It I'4 not true. It is a slander, and I feel con-
fident that all who read will pronounce it, as I have done,
cruel and atrocious. ----- •
With regard to its first clause, I here affirm that it.
Kossuth had not only no part in exciting the Italians to 6
revolution at this time ; but, that, up to the latest moment,
he opposed such an ill-judged and premature movement
with all the might of his counsel. He had weighty reason*
for so doing. Perhaps you, sir, may know what these
" weighty reasons " are; but whether you do or not,
I am not going to declare them for the benefit of Ate'
trian ears. That is not the question now, but your
charge is ; to which I oppose the affirmation that it
is not true. With regard to the latter clause of your
quoted assertion, I have thus to answer : that the moment
in which M. Kossuth received the news of the insurrection
in Milan—and which came upon him as unexpectedly
upon any man in England—upon that moment he hurried
to make preparation for his departure to the scene of action.
Although filled with a prophetic apprehension that the
affair would turn out to be an entente, and not a national
revolution, he, nevertheless, resolved to fling his body into
the struggle. I, who was to have had the honour of sharing
his dangers, can bear testimony to the zeal with which ,he
was hurrying to face them, when his purpose was frustrated
by the news that the insurrection was crushed. were
I to detail, as I may one day be called upon to do,
the sacrifices which he made to effect that abject, the
slanders, sir, which you have uttered against him would
recoil still more bitterly upon yourself. For the present
I content myself with the assertion of the fact ; but should
you render it necessary I am ready with the proofs.
But no such explanation was needed to shield Low
Kossuth from your unmanly accusation. Shall I recal
circumstance in the life of that heroic man to refute you.
You, sir, must know it well. It has been recorded in the
columns, and engraven in the tablets, of history. In Ass(l.,
,
1849, upon the banks of the Danube, stood Louis Kossutn•
On one side was the avenging Austrian, thirsting for his
blood, on the other his weak and wavering protector, who
had declared that unless he—Kossuth—and his assn
b tes
would consent to abandon the religion of their fathers, thei
must be yielded up, to what ? On the part of Kossuth'?
death—certain death—upon the ignominious scaffold. In,
this perilous crisis, others, less compromised, accepted 11t11
upon the terms proposed. What did Kossuth when
came to his turn to speak ? He uttered these words of gleqi:
"Death, death upon the scaffold, in preference to such
terms for life ! Accursed be the tongue that could make ''''
me such an infamous proposal."
In such language, at such a time, there is no ~ borabss-
tic fustian." I could believe that there were men incap-
able of comprehending the sublime courage—the
virtue of such an act ; but I did not believe there cratedh
a man in all England who would have the off/via t° riire hero t 7. positive and palpable meanness—to stigmatise the --
that act with a charge of cowardice.
Such, sir, are the facts connected with this affair. IrClaY
at some future time treat you to a few opinions, and re-
view more copiously the history of your conduct in relation
to M. Kossuth. Meanwhile I leave you to purify rm.
soiled escutcheon as you best may.—l am, sir, yours obe-
diently,
Feb. 15. MAYNE REID.
P.S.—Feb. 16th.—Sir,—In your journal of this morn-
ing, instead of publishing the above letter, you have notice 4
it in a short paragraph, worthy of the pen that would
malign a patriot. But do not imagine that you are to
escape thus easily from the unpleasant position in whie,
you have placed yourself. In this country the character of
a gentleman, though he be a stranger, is not to be wantonly
assailed with impunity ; and you, sir, shall be as amenehtf
to the laws of honour and justice as the meanest citizen
the land.

at
You say, in relation to your pseudo proclamation, that
you "had good reason for believing it to be genuine, and
shall certainly not discredit it without better authorlti
than that of Mayne Reid.'"
If you had no better authority for publishing it thill
what is implied by the tenor of the above paragraPuP.
fancy you will have some difficulty in explaining to Yr,
'
readers why you published it at all, and to your country;
men why—so long as a doubt existed in your mind a
its genuineness—you took advantage of the sentiments eta
pressed by it to defame the character of its reputed author.
You take occasion to characterise my letter as " absurall
bombastic language." It is before the public as &bun
Let them be the judges ; and the only favour I should. *I
of them would. be, to read your editorial article upon the
same subject. Having given yours a prior perusal, I
satisfied that their ears will not be so delicately attuned to be jarred by the " absurdly bombastic" of mine. a
Bombastic seems to be a favourite phrase with you ; and
for the style itself no writer in England is more accustom f
to its usage than that mythical personage—the editor o
the Times.

alll
Your sneer at the "authority of Mayne Reid" is eV ho
characteristic. It is true lam but a plain gentleman, •a
But I cli
makp my living, like yourself, by literature. Bu ,
„,„a
not calculate upon the statement of a plain gentle'Thi
having any weight with you. In my letter I offered rto
full proofs of my assertions. You do not seem iuclineti
call them forth.
And now, sir, one word more. If you flatter 7oulleltti,
that, by means of bold swagger and personal invectiveZ;y.
can cover your misdeeds, you are sadly mistaken. Y°ll
insult the understanding of Englishmen, as you repeal
do, with your wordy sophistry, and mystify the 13. the
who " run as they read"—l sir' have a higher faith In ~st,
intelligence of my countrymen 'and a full confidence tcra.
the majority of them have heads clear enough to tin ,14
stand, and hearts pure enough to repudiate, an unPr°v°ll.
and unproven slunder.—l am, Sir, &c.,
MAYNB