The Sun.
London, England, 1802-12-15 00:00:00

MR. KING's ADDRESS TO TILE PUBLIC.

I am extremely uneasy at. being again forced on
the Public; there is noaffeclation in my reluElance. I
would be obscure and unnoticed ; but the inveterate
malice that pUrsues me,- does not let even insigni-
-ficancy proteCt me.
-Those who only read of our Laws, and find them
such beautiful aphorisms in the recital, but have not
experienced how in their practice they are twisted,
distorted, and.perverted, wonder that Ho not appea
- to them for redress ; but:let them inquire of men of
grenter importance, and they will find, that after an
enormous expence, no other result from actions and
itidi&merits than assaults less gross and violent, for
inuendos more acute and injurious.-

SOme commercial concerns wok me to France in
the summer. I had the misfortune to break my
leg there ; yet a cripple, and 'Under high sympto-
matie lever, I undertook the journey, and returned
to England to save My bail, not bail for my own
debts—this has always been misconceived or mis-
represented—though obloquy has been so obstrepe-
rous about the Portland Bank, I have scarcely any
debts of my own ; they are the delfts of Sir Nilo HA.E
Ca om E, POWNOLL, HARTMAN, and Co. debts from
which I was t'io he indemnified ; debts which I never
contracted ; but still I am amenable for them—Such
is the perilous law of Partnership. I was an
associate in that house, and jealousy, or avarice, or
calumny, alarmed my Partners, and frustrated a plan
that promised_ great advantage to the inventors.
Though these debts were incurred by others, and
not by me, they fall on all the firm, and the dissolu-
tion affords no protedion ; but however legally re-
sponsible I May be, morally, I am guiltless; and
yet I-have been perseCuted as if they were my own
distinet debts, as -if I had been fraudulent, and had
enjoyed and dissipated; or appropriated to my own.
use arid benefit, the innney which went into other
men's coffers. But while I was in France, slanders
were impotent, I was Out of the jurisdietion of the
Court, and no process could reach me ; there was,
however, an operation of another power, which
worked wherever I travelled; and in obedience to .
its dilates I returned, to render and save the bail
that -had confided in my hononr.* Perhaps the fasti-
dious censors, who are so lavish 'of.blame on others,
and have Often' made free with my name would in a
similar situation have devised some subterfuge for
continuing in safety, rather than satisfy conscience
at the expense of inevitable confinement. '
There was no need of doing me violence. I re-
turned to exonerate' my bail, and' I should at the
proper moment have gone voluntarily to. the Fleet,
but the animosity of my adversaries anticipated my
intentions ; every indignity was offered, and '1
must be dragged to the most ignominious gaol in
the country. Luckily for the transgressors of the
law, it was my area they scaled, my doors they
forced, my asylum they invaded, and personal out-.
rage was committed on one whom the laws never
protected.
I will not speak of Sir ROBERT MURRAY ; his
titles and his honour are subjects for his own vindi-
cation, if they are not forlorn and irreparable;
but this I will say:, that whatever. might haVe been
his former life, in connection with me he did no
harm ; lie has been rendered a "subject of eledionger-
ing finesse, of and of derision ;2 but
after all this wantonness of fancy, few debts Were
proVi4 under his Commission ; and the property
prOduced, whether by coercion or spontaneously, is
More than equivalent to. the'claims. But as lam a
marked theme for scandal, it matters not whether I
am in, company of Saint or Satan ; I was not spared
with the great, Sir MICHAEL CROMIE, PowNoLL,
HARTMAN, and Co. With,estates in Ireland—in the
Cape 'of Good Hope—and 19,0001. a year in Santa
Croix. How then could I expert to escape calumny,
With so equivocal a charader as Sir ROBERT LA-
THROPP MURRAY ? •