The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-07 00:00:00

HAVANNAH, JULY 23

You have no doubt heard of different parties (political) exist-
ing here, and perhaps were led to conclude that confusion and
anarchy soon would take place. Since my arrival I have made it
my business to look into the intentions and views of the contend-
ing parties, and find this to be the result:—A party, composed
principally of European Spaniards, was opposed to the nomina-
tion of his Excellency Governor Mahy, as the Captain-General,
while at the same time each of them was crying " rive la Con-
stitution !" and professing themselves firm supporters of the
present Government of Spain. The other party consisted of
the natives of the island, who became firmly attached to Go-
vernor Illahy, and were determined to support him in all his
measures. It was necessary for the Governor to attach himself
to one party, and of course he took the side with the natives;
this caused many of the European party (which, by the bye, was
the strongest at first) to come over, and the party of the natives
gained the ascendancy, and I think will keep it. I cannot dis-
tinguish these parties by any peculiar name, as the members of
both are decidedly in favour of the constitution.
The death of the Captain-General, which occurred on the
19th inst., is an event deeply regretted by the Spaniards, and
all good men. He was acknowledged to have been the man
most fit to govern here ; the laurels he gained in the actions in
the Peninsula won the adoration of the military ; and his wis-
dom in the cabinet, the admiration of the politician. Possess-
ing, in a considrable degree, the suaviter in mod°, e.t 'crater in
re, he became the idol 'of the majority of the people, who saw
that the welfare of the island was his pole star.
Upon Governor Mahy's being taken ill, he conceived it prow
per that a Governor pro tem. should be appointed, and as there
was a difference of opinion whether the supreme authority
should be vested in the Lieutenant-Governor Kinderland,
or in the Intendant Perillas, or whether the Military Au-
thority should be vested in the former, and the Civil in
the latter person, he called upon the Provincial Deputies
to decide, and they unanimously agreed that 'Governor
Kinderland should take the command. This venerable man
has, therefore, again upon his shoulders the care of the state,
and from the love in which he is held by his countrymen, and
the honourable manner iri which he filled the office of Gover-
nor of Florida', and several places on this island, there is no
doubt but that under his command peace will continue, and
,the welfare of the country increase. His talents are highly
'spoken of, both in the field and cabinet, and his manners very
engaging. I was much
is pleased with him on being intro-
duced : his countenance placid, his person tall and thin, and
his hair gray : he is about 65 years of age.
the city is, and has been fof some time, very sickly, and the
number of deaths very great. - • -
Among the shipping in the harbour the fever has raged, and
imany a poor sailor carried to his strict account.

" The reader will be surprised to learn, that after a discus-
sion of two days by the Committee of Stewards on the-propriety
and prudence of giving the memory of the late unfortunate
Marquis of Londonderry, that it was decided the toast should
not be given by the chair—that it should not be in t* list of
toasts—and yet the necessity of the same discretion which
caused this determination might have been urged on, the mind
of the Noble Marquis by that Committee, and thus have saved
that Noble Lord from the pain which he must have expe-
riencedon witnessing the effects of, the toast."
Now what is the fact ? In arranging the toasts to be an-
nounced by the President, two of the stewards observed, that
if the memory of the Marquis of Londonderry should be given,
it would be considered by some of the company to be a political
or party toast, and as such might interrupt the unanimity of
the meeting. The majority, that is ten of the twelve Stewards
then present, thought otherwise, and assigned the reasons of
their opinion; It was then remarked by one .of the minority,
that if the toast were to be proposed by the Marquis of Done-
gall, no objection could, he conceived, be m..de to it, and this
mode of giving it was finally adopted, not because the majority
thought there Was Any reason to apprehend that the unanimity
of the company would be disturbed by the proposed toast, but
because they were anxious that the whole arrangements should
be approved of by all the Stewards.
That such was the arrangement made on this occasion,'we
have the authority of the President, the Vice-President, and of
other members of the Committee of Stewards, to state.

. .
Well then, under the express sanction: of the Stewards them-
selves, the Noble thiest of the Meeting proposed the toast, at
the proper timeand did so, we are well informed, under strong
emotions—for Lord Londonderry was not only dear to his
heart, as his Steady and affectionate friend, but had given es-
sential aid in carrying through Parliament the very Bill which
has secured his hereditary rights to his children and their pos-
terity, and has ditlused such general exultation through the
town of Belfast—an exultation manifested both by public re-
joicings and by the festive entertainment at which its principal
inhabitants were then assembled.
__

_ .
The toast thus given was universally drank by the company
where the President sat and at some Other tables (a ). It was
also generally drank in some other parts of the room, and was
in progress through the remainder of the company ; but whilst
this was going on, Mr. Lawless, in the first instance, called
out, " Mr. Chairman ! (b) Mr. Chairman ! Mr. Chairman !"
and then, having found this call unavailing, placed one foot on
the form on which he hadi sat and another on the table. Here
he stood for soiree time with his arm outstretched and a pencil
extended. betwixt his fingers, in the attitude Of a Mercury about
to soar aloft on some celestial errand, samq mission of peace,
from father JOve.:--bilt our Hermes seemed to be rather a mes-
senger of Pluto—
, " A herald rising from the Stygian shore
To seatter.discord and awake uproar."
A-nd now the almost universal indignation of the insulted
company btirst forth' in cries of '" Down with hini ! down,
clown! out with him ! out, out !" intermingled with some eja-
culations o 1 " hear him ! let him speak,". &e. Few, indeed,
were the supporters of Mr. Lawless in the insult whichle thus
offered to Lord Donegall and his inviters. They might yet be
enumerated.

Mr. Lawless now got upon the table, where he stood uttering
words which no man heard, and using gesticulations which no
man comPrehended, till the President came down to him, and
he was removed to his seat, as stated in our last number. _

Such are the plain matters of fact—such the cause of the
uproar by which the harmony of the company was disturbed.
Mr. Lawless indeed tells us, with much risible gravity, that on
this occasion " the memory of the unfortunate Marquis of Lon-
donderry was pursued with groans and hisses, and almost uni.
versal indignation." Yes ! there were groans, but it was Mr.
Lawless who was grbaned—hisses—but it was Mr. Lawless
who was hissed—almost universal indignation—bUt it was on
Mr. Lawless it burst, in a torrent of sound. -
What ! is Mr. Lawless' so ignorant as to suppose, that if the
memory, of Lord Londonderry had been generally hooted at, the
Marquis of Donegan' the invited guest, who, kinder the sanc-
tion of the Stewards, had proposed it as a toast, would have re-
mained a moment longer in a company where he himself was'
thus insulted—a company guilty of such a flagrant breach of
the laws of hospitality and of honour ? ,
Alas ! such seems to' have been the astounding effects of the
indignation of the company on Mr. Lawless's mind, that he ap-
pears to have almost totally forgotten the transactions of tile
evening—and hence we find him, in his published report of
them, drawing on laney not on memory for a narrative of the
scenes which had passed before his own eyes. It is not, there-
fore, to be wondered at, that in the flights of his imagination,
he has not only inverted the order of tne toasts given, but for-
gotten the speeches which were really delivered, substituted
some other matters in their places, •and even supplied Sir
Stephen May with words never uttered. by him—words which
might involve him in a personal quarrel with Mr. Arthur Chi-
chester, if this gentleman were so singularly foolish, so ab-
surdly credulous, as to place the Slightest reliance on " The
Irishman's" rhodomondates. Sir Stephen May never once men-
tioned Mr. Arthur Chichester's name, in any part •of 'his
speech—Nor :did the Marquis of Donegan utter a syllable,-re-
specting persons " who reside on his estates," an allusion to
their supposed dependence upon him, as his tenants, whiCh
" The Irishman," in the fawning and adulatory tone in which
he reports his imaginary speech, ascribes to that Nobleman.
• We presume it is .under this same temporary aberration of
mind that he first affirms, in allusion to the toast given by
Lord Donegan, that it is one " which no Irishman who can re-
collect the scenes of the last 30 years in Ireland can in our
mind give with consistency"—then again he-tells us, ".that it
was a natural and an honest feeling, in Lord Donegan, to give
the toast, and particularly, if not rerfionstrated with by
.the
Stewards, whose duty it was to advise his Lordship on so. un-.
portant a subject"—and lastly, he gravely alleges,- that Mr.
Lawless, had he been heard, would have satisfied every man,'
that the toast might have been drank without compromising
the principle of any man in the room, and preserving at the
same time the feelings of Lord J)onegall." All this is de.:
lightfully paradoxical-, and will appear still more amusing,
when we inform our readers, that immediately after Mr. Law-
leses complete 'defeat—just after his removal from his elevated
stand on the table, to his former more lowly station,the express-
ed' himself thus to a gentleman who sat, beside him :—" As
an Irishman, I shall never, if I can help it, suffer the name of
Castlereagh or Londonderry to• be mentioned but with disgrace
and infamy." (e) ,
Now, in the name of common sense, was-it necessary that
Mr. -Lawless should waste-his treasury 'of words in endeavouring

(a) We have made minute inquiries on this subject from
most respectable quarters, and find that our former report Was
substantially correct. We also find that the words in which
the toast was given were• as follow —" Gentlemen, I beg to
give you the memory of my friend and countryman,. the late
Marquis of Londonderry." Previously to Lord Donegall's
giving this toast, he requested the glasses to be filled, which
request was complied. with, as far as it was heard, at the Presi-
dent's and the neighbouring tables. On these subjects we have
made particular inquiry, not only from the President and Vice.
President, but from Lord Donegal', and the Sovereign of the
town, and on their authority we state the facts thus minutely.
At some of the tables, where there were lists of toasts, the glasses
were filled for the toasts which happened to be next in order in
the'Stewards' lists, and when-the memory of Lord London-
•derry was.given it was repeated; in some instances, by a person
stationed at a proper distance RI catch the sound.
(b) 'We . state this circumstance 011 the Authority-of sotne
Gentlemen-wha.sat,-at;the same -table with, and near to, Mr.
Lawless.
,(c) This we mention on indubitable authority.

to persuade the respectable inhabitants of Belfast to drink the
Memory of Lord Londonderry ?—Has he forgotten the address
which they presented, and the dinner they gave to his Lordship
in the 'year 1816 ? Has he forgotten with what pride they
claimed him for their countryman ? Does he not remember that
on Feb. 13, 1818, when a dinner was given by them to Lord
Belfast, they drank with glee the health of the then MarquiS of
Londonderry, and the Marchiohestof Londdnderry, as well as
of Mid and Lady Castlereagh', and the house of Stuart? Did
the Marquis of Donegall need such an auxiliary as Mr. Law-
less ? or did he-wish to be ineumbered with his clogging old !
Mr. Lawless, it appeal* when standing on the table, had a
sort of vision, in which the Presidente Mr. Cunningham Grecr,-
al,pearedlo enter into a kind of comproinise with him.—Dlr.
Greg, lioWever, who had no similar dream, informs us that
such compromise never took place. On the -Contrary, when the
President was retiring to his seat, he Withdrew under the ta.e.:
mendous displeasureof Mr. Lawless, who shook his hand and
said—" you shall hear from me to-morrow."
Again Mr. Lawless says—" We are inform\ed that at Mr.
Batt's table, the greater portion turned down their glasses,"
&c.--This also _seems to have been a dream--one of those
phantoms which flit through a disturbed brain, and are
We have the authority of Mr. Batt himself, and of other gentle-
men who were at his table, for affirming, that no such thing
took place.
Again, Mr. Lawless asserts, that after the uproar began,
" the Chairman quitted his` chair, and, we understand, was
about to leave the room, till called back by some friends."
This, also, it appears, was seen In the spirit, not in the flesh.
The Chairman left his chair to reawnstrate with Mr. Lawless,
and put him down. When that was effected he returned. • ,
Well—but Mr. Lawless intimates that the entertainment
given to Lord Donegall was " a public meeting," and that he
and every man in that " assembly" had a right to be heard on
the subject of the toast given by his Lordship. In the name of
wonder what does the man mean ? Does he not know that the
entertainment was " a subscription dinner "—and is he not
aware, that on such occasions Stewards are appointed to ar-
range the toasts, and a Prtssident named to - preServe order,
when they are given (d.)—Now, in such cases, if every man
in a company of 240 individuals has a right to make speeches,
in defiance of the President's authority' the tumult at Babel
would appear a mere lullaby, if it could be contrasted with the
scenes bl uproar which would frequently ensue from such licen-
tious liberty. Nay, let us suppose that there were three per-
sons present at one of those meetings, afflicted, like some others,
with the Cacocthes Blaterandi, " the rage for babbling"—what
human ears could endure the chidings, the clamours, the bel-
lowings, the " confusion worse confounded," which would
spring from their inveterate malady, if there were no medical
men at hand to abate its symptoms by instantaneous venesec-
tion ?

On the whole of the affair, we beg leave to remind our read-
ers, that notwithstanding 'The Irishman's" allegation to the
contrary, no question took' place at the meeting as to the pro-
priety of the toast given by Lord Donegan. The only point at
issue had direct reference to Mr. Lawless himself, and when his
object had been completely fustrated and he had resumed his
seat, he was permitted, for the sake of tranquillity, to remain
where he was. In short, so weak was his party and so little in-
clination, had the general company to espouse his cause, that he
was not even suffered to utter three sentences which could have
been distinctly heard.