The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-20 00:00:00

DOVE AND THE " WIZARD."

The following letter appears in the Leeds Mercury :
" TO THE EDITOR OE THE LEEDS MERCURY.
" Gentlemen,—l take it for granted that you are suf-
ficiently honourable to allow me a little space in your in-
fluential journal to set myself right with the public on the
subject of the day, relative to the late William Dove.
" Had you, gentlemen, been in full possession of one-
half the facts of the case, you would not have written
such severe strictures against my character and profes-
sion as you have done. I know you better ; but I
blame you for being too hasty in the matter.
" A more scandalous, unsatisfactory, and impudent
statement never appeared in prin than that which came
out in your Tuesday's impression. It appears to me,
and to hundreds more in this town, that Dove's villan-
ous habit of lying followed hiaa even to his prison, and to
the scaffold I I tell you, gentlemen, and can give yon
ample proof of the truth of my assertion, that not one-
tenth part of Dove's statement in his prison is true. I
have uniformly wished him to behave well to his wife,
and to go home and use kind conciliating language to
her, and she would then meet him with a smile.' And
he admits that.

" The statement made by Dove in June should have
been in the hearing off' Hardcastle, who declares that all
he (Dove) says is a tissue of lies that can be very soon
refuted.

" Gentlemen, if the conductors of the press knew half
as much about me as they should do in a case of this
nature, they would forbear to treat me in the manner
they are doing.
"I have been the means of lifting up out of a sick bed
numbers who are living in and about Leeds, and who
would be glad to meet any of my traducers in court to
prove tbat I have cured men of the dropsy and other
complaints which the faculty, numbers of them, had
abandoned as incurable ; and as you, gentlemen, for my
credit, and equally honourable to yourselves as public
instruct ire, declare that I, Henry Harrison, would have
been horrified' at the very thought of Dove resorting
to poison to get rid of his wife—a most amiable and
lovely woman, too good for such a wretch as him, who
has, I am sure, died with a lie in his mouth, and lived
in the midst of sinful dissipation and folly.
"I always told Dove that he never would be happy
with his wife until she should bring him some children,
and that it would be much better that he should sepa-
rate from her if he could not live agreeable with her ;
that it was no credit to him to be continually torment.
ing a woman who could not yield him those blessings
which nature forbad her to give, viz., a half-dozen chil-
-1 dren, which he, Dove, pretended to long for.
"Gentlemen, it will be of no use me attempting to
deny any one particular statement made by that profli-
gate and unfeeling criminal, as I declare to you, upon
my honour, that there is scarcely a sentence of it true ;
and whatis true is told in such a raving, incoherent man-
ner, that the public—aye, the public—have seen the
folly of publishing it, and that same discerning public
declare 'that the document ought not to have been put
into print.'
" Gentlemen, I know that you have been imposed
upon by the made-up tales' for Dove's defence ; your
better nature has given way to the bland remarks of the
Mad Doctors' who have been ' charmed,' and bound
with a spell' of some colour and shape best known to
themselves ; but all were not agreed.
" No, gentlemen, neither are all the people of Leeds
agreed about your leader of Tuesday last, and think it
very hard upon one whom you yourselves declare that
I should have been horrified with the idea of Dove poi-
soning his wife.'

"Gentlemen, the conductors of the press are not all
England, and the people nowadays are too shrewd to be
led away by such foolish and wicked statements as those
made in York Castle to Mr. Barret.

" The judge who tried the case told Sir G. Grey 'that
Dove was legally guilty, and morally responsible' for
the crime of murdering his poor innocent wife.
" If I had no better patients and friends than Wm.
Dove to requite me for my advice I should have been
a poor man myself.
" Gentlemen, both I and Hardcastle declare, upon our
honour, that that tale about the five coppers' being
thrown about the barn to put a 'spell' upon King, and
thereby cause him to re•let the farm to Dove, was a pure
burlesque upon the simpleton, made out by some wag
in the neighbourhood, who found Dove but too credu-
lons to believe anything or anybody who could play
upon his foolish imagination and 'selfish propensities.'
" God help any man who may have dealings' with
such an 'evil one' as the late profligate Wm. Dove. I
lost pounds by him in time and money, and he would
never own that he was under any obligations for advice,
either from me or any one else. I trust that no such men
as Dove will ever enter my door again to ask me for
either advice or assistance under any such domestic
troubles as brought Dove to the gallows. The more I
am known the less influence will the press have in try-
ing to put me down. It may have a contrary effect.
What I have done professionally cannot be depreciated
by the gentlemen of the press, because the recipients of
relief administered by my skill will never cease to ex-
press their gratitude for what I have done for them
while they live. Only last night, and on Saturday night,
the subject was canvassed over in my favour by scores
of gentlemen in different parts of Leeds, and sent to me
for my eatisfaotion and comfort.
" Gentlemen,—l am preparing for the press a some-
thing which will alter your opinion, and the opinions of
those of the London press as well, I hope, and some-
thing which will prove to my countrymen that Henry
Harrison is and will continue to be, not an impostor,
but a real benefactor of his species.
" Gentlemen, I commit this letter to your care, and
hope to see it in the columns of the Leeds Mercury of
to-morrow's impression; and am, gentlemen, yours grate-
fully fir the notice you have taken of me --it will do me
good.

" HEN. HARRISON.
"Leeds, August IE, 1856.
" Postscript—Dove dec!ares that he had not seen
me from January to the 6th March ;' then he says the t
he met me in my warehouse opposite my house, and that
was in February,' and there I promised to make him
some belladonna.' How any reliance can be placed upon
such statements is to me, and to hundreds in Leeds, a
complete mystery.'
"Gentlemen, I solemnly declare that I never saw
Dove from the first week in January to the 6th March,
as he says, so that you see Dove convicts himself ! And
surely, gentlemen, after such statement, and many
others of the same kind, you, on calm reflection, will see
that I am an injured man until they are refuted, and
your well-known impartiality will do that in a case of
this nature,

" I sNas bred arid born in Boar lane, and was never
two miles out of Leeds to live in my life as a resident.
I never had any occasion to advertise, as the cures I
make recommend themselves.

" Dove declares that he never give his wife the
strychnia for the purpose of taking away her life ! He
said he was 4 muddled' in his brazil before giving her
that deadly poison I"