The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1835.

LORD ALVANLEY & Mr. O'CONNELL.

No. I.

No. 11, Grosvenor-street, May 5, 1835.
SIR,—In consequence of the event of yesterday evening,
I think it right to give publicity to the accompanying letter
from Mr. O'Connell, together with my answer.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
G. D. DAMER.

No. 11.

Merrion-square, Dublin, May 1, 1835.
SIR,—I have received three letters, two purporting to be
written by you, and one by Lord Alvanley, but under such
circumstances of a ludicrous nature, that I can scarcely
bring myself to believe them to be genuine. If not, I trust
you will excuse me for giving you this trouble, and blame
only the persons who used ypur name.
The first letter is indeed dated the 22d of April, but was
not put into the London Post Office until the 27th, and
did not and could not reach me here before the 29th
(Thursday). Your second letter is dated the 28th
(Wednesday), and expresses surprise that I did not before
then answer your first letter, which I could not receive
until the day after.
Again, Lord Alvanley's letter is nothing less than a chal-
lenge to fight, to be delivered to me in London, as it would
seem rather an inconvenient distance, as the letter is dated.
at Cliefden. But this letter assumes an air of more comi-
cality when it turns out to be one sent by one person in
Cliefden to another person in London, to be transmitted
thence to a third person in Dublin, to fight a duel at a
truly long shot. This, as we say in Ireland, " bangs
Banagher."
It is, however, after all but an unvalourous—l believe I
have coined the proper word—an unvalourous absurdity in
Lord Alvanley to send me a challenge, when my sentiments
on that subject have been so publicly and so frequently pro-
claimed.

But there is really a serious view of the subject, which it
is, I do believe, my duty to take. It is this—that these let-
ters are a distinct breach of privilege. It seems to me at
present that I am bound to treat them as such ; and if I
continue to think so, I will bring them to the attention of
the House of Commons accordingly.
As to duelling—l have no hesitation to tell you that I
treat it with the most sovereign contempt, as a practice in-
consistent with common sense ; above all, as a violation,
-14fri and palpable, of the divine law.
At the same time I wish you distinctly to understand that
although I totally disclaim everything connected with duel-
ling, yet I am most anxious on every occasion upon which
any man can point out to me that I have anywhere or in
any manner, done him an injustice, to repair it to the ut-
most extent of his wishes. So, if I have, without a com-
plete justification, offended any man, I am always perfectly
ready to make the fullest atonement he can possibly desire.
Therefore, neither Lord Alvanley nor any other person re-
quires the absurd code of duelling with me. I would have
the greatest alacrity to atone to any man who showed me
that I had unjustifiably assailed him.—l have the honour
to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. Danner Dawson, &c. &c.

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

I now learn that this matter has already got into the
London Newspapers. I presume, indeed, that it is only
calculated for that meridian.

No. 111.

ANSWER TO MR: O'CONNELL'S LETTER OF IST OP MAY.

sth of May, 1835.
Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of May Ist ; and as you therein state that you consider it
to be your duty to bring Lord Alvanley's letter to you of
the 21st before the House of Commons as a breach of
privilege, I have recommended him to wait the result of
such a determination.

I beg to affirm that I put my letter, enclosing Lord
Alvanley's of the 21st, into the usual letter-box of the
Travellers' Club before five o'clock, on Wednesday, the
22d ; and I must request that you will forward to me the
envelop that enclosed it, that I may be able to ascertain from
the Post-office whence this extraordinary delay originated.
GEORGE DAWSON DAMER.
Daniel O'Connell, Esq., Merion-square.

MR. D'ISRAELI AND MR. O'CONNELL.

(No I.)
31 A, Park-street, Grosvenor-square, Tuesday, May 5.
Sin,—As you have established yourself as the champion
of your father, I have the honour to request your notice to
a very scurrilous attack which your father has made upon
my conduct and character.

Had Mr. O'Connell, according to the practice observed
among gentlemen, appealed to me respecting the accuracy
of the reported expressions before he indulged in offensive
comments upon them, he would, if he can be influenced by
a sense of justice, have felt that such comments were unne-
cessary. He has not thought fit to do so, and be leaves
me no other alternative but to request that you, his son,
will resume your vicarious duties of yielding satisfaction for
the insults which your father has too long lavished with
impunity upon his political opponents.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient Servant,
Morgan O'Connell, Esq., M.P. B. D'ISRAELI.

(No. II.)
9, Clarges-street, Tuesday, May 5.
Sir—l have this day received a letter from you, stating
that a scurrilous attack had been made on you by my father,
without giving me any information as to the expression com-
plained of, or when or where they were used, and which I
now hear of for the first time.
I deny your right to call upon me in the present instance,
and lam not answerable for what my father may say. I
called on Lord Alvanley for satisfaction because I conceived
he had purposely insulted my father, by calling a meeting at
Brookes's, for the purpose of expelling him the club, he being
at the time absent in Ireland.

When I deny your right to call on me in the present in-
stance, I also beg leave most unequivocally to deny your
right to address an insulting letter to me, who am almost
personally unknown to you, and unconscious of having ever
given you the slightest offence. I must therefore request
that you will withdraw the letter, as without that, it will
be impossible for me to enter into an explanation.
I have the honour, &c.,
B. D' Israeli, E sq. M. O'CONNELL.
This letter will be delivered to you by my friend Mr.
French.

(No. III.)
31 A, Park-street, Grosvenor-square, Tuesday, May 5.
Sir—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter, delivered to me by Mr. Fitzstephen French,
by which I learn that you do not consider yourself " an-
swerable for what your father may say."
With regard to your request that I should withdraw my
letter, because its character is insulting to yourself, I have
to observe that it is not in my power to withdraw the let-
ter, which states the reason of my application ; but I have
no hesitation in assuring you, that I did not intend that it
should convey to you any personal insult.
I have the honour to be, &c., B. D'ISRAELI.
I feel it my duty to publish this correspondence.

(No. IV. )
I'o MR. DANIEL O'CONNELL, M. P. FOR DUBLIN.

London May 5.
Mr. O'Connell—Although you have long placed your-
self out of the pale of civilization, still I am one who will
not be insulted, even by a yahoo, without chastising it.
When I read this morning in the same journals your viru-
lent attack upon myself, and that your son was, at the same
moment, paying the penalty of similar virulence to another
individual on whom you had dropped your filth, I thought
that the consciousness that your opponents had at length
discovered a source of satisfaction might have animated
your insolence to unwonted energy, and I called upon
your son to re-assume his vicarious office of yielding satis-
faction for his shrinking sire. But it seems that gentleman
declines the further exercise of the pleasing duty of endur-
ing the consequences of your libertine harangues. I have
no other means, therefore, of noticing your effusion but
this public mode. Listen, then, to me.
If it had been possible for you to act like a gentleman,
you would have hesitated before you made your foul and
insolent comments upon a hasty and garbled report of a
speech which scarcely contains a sentence or an expression
as they emanated from my mouth ; but the truth is, you
were glad to seize the first opportunity of pouring forth your
venom against a man whom it serves the interest of your
party to represent as a political apostate.
In 1831, when Mr. O'Connell expressed to the electors
of Wycombe his anxiety to assist me in my election, I came
forward as the opponent of the party in power, and which I
described in my address as " a rapacious, tyrannical, and in-
capable faction"—the English Whigs, who in the ensuing
year, denounced you as a traitor from the throne, and every
one of whom, only a few months back, you have anathema-
tized with all the peculiar graces of a tongue practised in
scurrility. You are the patron of these men now, Mr. O'Con-
nell : you, forsooth, are " devoted" to them. I am still
their uncompromising opponent. Which of us is the most
consistent ?

You say that I was once a Radical, and now that I am a
Tory. My conscience acquits me of ever having deserted
a political friend, or ever having changed a political opinion.
I worked for a great and avowed end in 1831, and that was
the restoration of the balance of parties in the state, a re-
sult which I believed to be necessary to the honour of the
,calm and the happiness of the people. I never advocated
a measure which I did not believe tended to this result, and
if there be any measures which I then urged, and now am
not disposed to press, it is because that great result is
obtained.

In 1831 I should have been very happy to have laboured
for this object with Mr. O'Connell, with whom I had no

personal acquaintance, but who was a member of the Legis-
lature, remarkable for his political influence, his versatile
talents, and his intense hatred and undisguised contempt of
the Whigs.
Since 1831 we have met only once ; but I have a lively
recollection of my interview with so distinguished a person-
age. Our conversation was of great length ; I had a very
ample opportunity of studying your character. I thought
you a very amusing, a very interesting, but a somewhat
overrated man. lam sure on that occasion I did not dis-
guise from you my political views : I spoke with a frank-
ness which I believe is characteristic of my disposition. I
told you I was not a sentimental, but a practical politician ;
that what I chiefly desired to see was the formation of a
strong, but constitutional Government, that would maintain
the empire, and that I thought if the Whigs remained in
office they would shipwreck the State. I observed then, as
was my habit, that the Whigs must be got rid of at any
price. It seemed to me that you were much of the same
opinion as myself ; but our conversation was very general.
We formed no political alliance, and for a simple reason—
I concealed neither from yourself, nor from your friends, the
repeal of the union was an impassable gulf between us, and
that I could not comprehend, after the announcement of
such an intention, how any English party could co-operate
with you. Probably you then thought that the English
movement might confederate with you on a system of mu-
tual assistance, and that you might exchange and circulate
your accommodation measures of destruction ; but even Mr.
O'Connell, with his lively faith in Whig feebleness and
Whig dishonesty, could scarcely have imagined that in the
course of twelve months his fellow-conspirators were to be
my Lord Melbourne and the Marquis of Lansdowne.
I admire your scurrilous allusions to my origin. It is
quite clear that the " hereditary bondsman" has already
forgotten the clank of his fetter. I know the tactics of
your church ;, it clamours for toleration, and it labours
for supremacy. I see that you are quite prepared to
persecute.
With regard to your taunts as to my want of success in
my election contests, permit me to remind you that I had
nothing to appeal to but the good sense of the people. No
threatening skeletons canvassed for me ; a death's-head and
cross-bones were not blazoned on my banners. My pecu-
niary resources, too, were limited ; I am not one of those
public beggars that we see swarming with their obtrusive
boxes in the chapels of your creed, nor am I in possession
of a princely revenue wrung from a starving race of fanatical
slaves. Nevertheless, I have a deep conviction that the
hoar is at hand when I shall be more successful, and take
my place in that proud assembly of which Mr. O'Connell
avows his wish no longer to be a member. I expect to be
a representative of the people before the repeal of the
union. We shall meet at Philippi ; and rest assured that,
confident in a good cause, and in some energies which have
been not altogether unproved, I will seize the first oppor-
tunity of inflicting upon you a castigation which will make
you at the same time remember and repent the insults that
you have lavished upon
BENJAMIN D'ISRAELI.

MR. O'CONNELL AND MR. D'ISRAELI,
the REJECTED CONVERT to CONSERVATISM.

We see by a report in the Dublin Morning Register of
Monday, that at the last meeting of the Trades' Union in
Dublin, Mr. O'Connell adverted to the " No Popery" cry,
and retorted with much severity on Mr. D'lsraeli for the terms
in which he had designated the Hon. and Learned Member
for Dublin in his recent speech at Taunton. " I perceive
(said Mr. O'Connell) that at present in England the only
chance the Tories seem to have of once more rallying their
party is by raising the stale and bigotted cry of ' No Popery.'
I believe, looking through the History of England, it will be
found that no sources of deep mischief were ever comtem-
plated, or actually practised against the people of that country,
that were not prefaced, aided, and accelerated by raising the
religious and bigotted cry of Ne Popery,' and by endeavour-
ing to frighten them with the horns of the Pope—( Hear,
hear, and laughter)—in order those who intended to plunder
them might, by thus terrifying them, do so the more easily
with safety and impunity.—( Hear, hear.) I might go
farther and say, that the civil wars which ended in the
sacrifice, I would call it, and murder of Charles the First,
were principally instigated not only by the grievances of
the people, which were sufficient, but also by the foul tyranny
towards, and apprehensive of, the unfortunate English Catholics,
who were far too powerless, if even willing, to affect any species
of political mischief. It is a fact of the utmost importance
in the history of English Catholics, that they never once re-
belled or took any step against their allegiance to the throne,
or submission to the constitution, and if they be tarnished, as
they are, it is by the cruelty of Queen Mary, during her
reign in persecuting the Protestants.--( Hear, hear, hear.)
I feel for the Catholics, however, this consideration, that
when she persecuted the English Protestants,—the Irish
Catholics in particular, co-operated in establishing an asylum
for them in Bristol, where they actually supported seventy-
four families of \English Protestants, flying from the persecu-
tion
of Catholic Mary, and not only kept them safe, but
maintained, fed, and clothed them, during the entire con-
tinuance of that persecution.—( Cheers.) Yet, Sir, the ' no-
Popery' cry is again raised in England--(Hear, hear)—and
every enemy to Ireland in this country does me the honour of
directing the arrows of his malevolence against me. But I
have risen to a magnitude I never thought I would attain
by the quantity of slander poured out upon me, through the
medium of the English press.—( Hear, hear.) They make me
a bug-bear of the first magnitude—(Laughter)—though any
bug of my size would be a humbug-4 Continued cheering)--
but literally, nothing is more ludicrous than the importance
which they attach to my humble name. lam not accustomed
to feel much surprised at their resorting to me for " lack of
argument," but I must confess, there is one of the late attacks
on me which excites in my mind a great deal of astonishment.
—( Hear, hoar.) It is this—the attack lately made at Taun-
ton, by Mr. D'lsraeli.--( Hear.) In the annals of political
turpitude, there is not anything deserving the appellation of
" blackguardism" to equal that attack upon me. What is my
a cbe qgui
nani
nt agn co ew f
183,it1; tthhi m
es
boroughan ?
ofJust
Wyckham
t this. I n 8b e
el
am 3 le, or
vacant.
I then knew him, but not personally. I knew him merely as
the author of one or two novels. He got an introduction to
me, and wrote me a letter, stating, that as I was a Radical
Reformer, and as he was also a Radical—( Laughter)—and was
going to stand upon the Radical interest for the borough of
Wyckham, where he said there were many persons of that way
of thinking, who would be influenced by my opinion, he
would feel obliged by receiving a letter from me, recommen-
datory of him as a Radical. His letter to me was so distinct
upon the subject, that I immediately complied with the re-
quest, and composed as good an epistle as I could in his be-
half. lam in the habit of letter-writing, Sir,--(cheers and
laughter)—and Mr. D'lsraeli thought this letter so valuable,
that he not only took the autograph, but had it printed and.
placarded. It was, in fact, the ground upon which he can-
vassed the borough. He was, however, defeated, but that was
not my fault.—( Laughter.) I did not demand gratitude from
him, but I think, if he had any feeling of his own, he would
conceive I had done him a civility, at least, if not a service,
which ought not to be repaid by atrocity of the foulest descrip-
tion.—( Hear, hear.) The next thing I heard of him was,
that he had started upon the Radical interest for Marylebone,
but was again defeated. Having been twice defeated on the
Radical interest, he was 'just the fellow for the Conservatives
—(laughter)—and accordingly he joined a Conservative
club, and started for two or three places on the Conservative
interest.—(Loud laughter.) How is he now engaged ?
Why, in abusing the Radicals And eulogising the King
and the Church, like a true Conservative.—( Renewed
laughter.) At Taunton, this miscreant had the audacity to
style me an incendiary 1 Why, I was a greater incendiary in
1831, than lam at present, if I ever were one.--(Laughter.)
and if I am, he is doubly so, for having employed me—(Ci.,.. -rs
and laughter.) Then he calls me a traitor. My answer to
that is—he is a liar.--(Cheers.) He is a liar in action and in
words. His life is a living lie. He is a disgrace to his species.
What state of society must that be, that could tolerate such a
creature—having the audacity to come forward with one set of
principles at one time, and obtain political assistance by reason
of those principles--and at another, to profess diametrically the
reverse ? His life I say again is a living lie. He is the most
degraded of his species and kind ; and England is degraded
in tolerating, or having upon the face of her society, a mis-
creant of his abominable, foul, and atrocious nature—( Cheers. )
My language is harsh, and I owe an apology for it ; but I will
tell why I owe that opology. It is for this reason, that if there
be harsher terms in the British language, I should use them,
because it is the harshest of all terms that would be de-
scriptive of a wretch of this species—( Cheers and laughter.)
He is just the fellow for the Conservative Club. I suppose if
Sir Robert Peel had been out of the way when he was called
upon to take office, this fellow would have undertaken to supply
his place. He has falsehood enough, depravity enough, and
selfishness enough to become the fitting leader of the Conser-
vatives. He is Conservatism personified. His name shews he is
by descent a Jew. His father became a convert. He is the
better for that in this world ; and I hope, of course, he will be
the better for it in the next. There is a habit of underrating
that great and oppressed nation—the Jews. They are cruelly
persecuted by persons calling themselves Christians—but no
person ever yet was a Christian who persecuted. The cruelest
persecution they suffer is upon their character, by the foul
names which their calumniators bestowed upon them before
they carried their atrocities into effect. They feel the persecu-
tion of calumny severer upon them than the persecution of
actual force, and the tyranny of actual torture. I have the
happiness to be acquainted with some Jewish families in Lon-
don, and amongst them, more accomplished ladies, or more
humane, cordial, high-minded, or better-educated gentlemen I
have never met.—( Hear, hear.) It will not be supposed,
therefore, that when I speak of D'lsraeli as the descendant of
a Jew, that I mean to tarnish him on that account. They were
once the chosen people of God. There were miscreants
amongst them, however, also, and it must have certainly been
from one of those that D'lsraeli descended.—( Roars of laugh-
ter.) He possesses just the qualities of the penitent thief who
died upon the cross, whose name, I verily believe, must have
been D'lsraeli.—(Roars of laughter.) For aught I know the
present D' Israeli is descended from him, and with the impres-
sion that he is, I now forgive the heir-at-law of the blasphe-
mous thief who died upon the cross.—(Loud cheers, mingled
with laughter.)

LIVERPOOL, MAY 4.—We have had a very ani-
mated demand for Cotton to-day, and prices are rather higher
than on Saturday; 6,000 bags have been sold, of which about
1,500 were for export, and 1,000 on speculation.