The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-24 00:00:00

LONDOW, MONDAY, MAY 24, 1869.

A discreditable letter has recently appeared, under
the signature of JOSHUA FIELDEN, in which the son
of the late member for Oldham, the some time col-
league (in the representation of that Lancashire
borough) of WILLIAM CoBBETr, makes a spiteful but
utterly futile attack upon the fair fame of the
generous-hearted nobleman, long popularly known
under his courtesy title as Lord ASHLEY, but for the
last eighteen years as the Earl of SHAFTESBURY. The

occasion selected for this attack is, everything con-

sidered, rather oddly anal apropos. It is in reference
to that speech of Lord SHAFTESBURY'S on Saturday,
the 15th inst., upon which we have already com-
mented—the speech delivered by him on the in-
auguration or uncovering of the statue erected to the
memory of RICHARD OASTLER as one of the well-
known champions of the famous Ten-Hours' Factory
Act of Parliament. Now, if anything whatever

was conspicuously remarkable in that, in every way
remarkable, speech of Lord SIIAFTESBURY'S, it was
most certainly this—that the noble lord went out
of his way to award full honour and credit to every
individual, by name, who had in any way participated
in thelaboar of furthering and advancing,during a pro-
tracted series of years,through gooi repo rt and through
evil report, that memorable and beneficent measure.
Lord Su AFTESBURY in noway arrogated to himself the
reputation, we might even say the veneration, which, in
its regard, is very assuredly his due. Everyone else
he had a good word for, but in respect to himself,
and his own labours, he was—AS best became him—

scrupulously silent. The enormous audience he was
then •addressing, were there simply to do honour
to the memory of one man—RICHARD OasThER.
Lard SHAFTESBURY was there as the most fitting

person to give utteranc3 to the popular feeling in
regard to the name and fame of that histori-
cal benefactor of Faztory Labourers, and espe-

ci ►lly of Fa3tory Children. To do honour
to PaciTAIID OASTLER'S nivinnry alone, how-

ever, was not enough for the generous heart of

the Earl of SaAFTESEURY. And, hence, as we have
said, during the course of his anything but egotis-
tical speech on the 15th instant, the noble lord
most carefully enumerated, one after another, with

earnest words of commendation, more or leas appro-
priate to each of them in turn, all those who, in the
good work referred to, had co-operated in bringing it
eventually to its successful completion. Among
others, Lord SHAFTESBURY mentioned, with suitable
words of praise, the name of the late Mr. JOHN
FIELDEN, formerly M.P. for Oldham, in Lan-
cashire. And for this—with a very singular dis-
play of filial zeal—Mr. JOSHUA FIELDEN,
the writer of the letter we are just now
referring to, has fallen foul, not merely of the Earl of
SHAFTESBURY, but of his former self, that Lord

ASHLEY with whose honoured name more iutimately
than another name that could be mentioned, not even
excepting RICHARD OASTLER'S, certainly not except-
ing the late Mr. FIELDEN'S, the triumph of the Ten
flours' Factory Bill will henceforth be always asso-

ciated.
What appears to have peculiarly excited the ill-
feeling of Mr. JOSHUA FIELDEN, inducing him, there-
upon, to make this indecorous attack uponthe Earl of
SHAFTESBURY, is this, that the Earl, in the course of
his speech on the 15th inst., remarked that JOIIN
FIELDEN was ever with him, and that in consequence
of his being so, a certain joke was passed upon him,
which he, Lord SHAFTESBURY, would relate b his
hearers. "JOHN FIELDEN," said the Earl of SHAFTES-
BURY, " invariably followed his propositions on the
Ten Hours' Bill; he (the noble Earl) was, therefore,
to a certain extent, a leader, and had, to a certain
extent, a following ; and the remark was this :—'There
is Lord SHAFTESBURY, he has got no tail, he is like a
rabbit, he has only got a scut !' That was the
irreverent way in which his excellent friend was
spoken of, but his services were invaluable." That
harmless just, it is—not Lord SIIAFTEsBU RY'S remem-
ber! but one which years ago had been bandied about
at the Clubs and in the lobbies of the House of Com-
mons—thatit is which has so irritated Mr JosHuA FIEL-
DEN ! That is what sticks in his gizzard—that is what
stinks in his nostrils ! That little good-hutnoured joke
about the scut of the rabbit ! Witnessing, what we
have already designated, the really discreditable on-
slaught which iz, thereupon, made by Mr. JOSHUA
FIELDEN upon the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, one cin't
In•lp remembering, upon the instant, that succulent
couplet of PorE's in his Imitations front Horace—
" 0, blast it, south winds ! let a stench exhale,
Rank as the ripeness of a rabbit's tail."
The flavour of the joke, to Mr. JOSHUA FIELDEN'S
palate, i 3 not only intolerable, it islfor all the world
like a nibble at the " insane root" sung, of I.y the
poet--it stems to 'lave had an effect upon his judg-
ment little less than maddening. Reading his com-
ment, thereupon, one might almost be disposed
to believe, if Memory, and Hansard, and history were
not here to tell us very distinctly otherwise—one
might almost, but for that, be disposed to believe, for
he moment, that the very la.tt man to have had any-
thing to do with the furtheranc.-, much more -with the
iil:erier triumph of the Ten H nu e factory Bill was
L)rd ASHLEY, otherwise Lord SHA :fTESBURY ! That
the Author of the Bill, in point of fact, was
the late Mr. JOHN FIELDEN Time the Enemy
of the Bill— that it's arch-antagonis ',--was Lord