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

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1835

DUEL BETWEEN LORD ALVANLEY

AND MR. MORGAN O'CONNELL.

In consequence of the letters of Lord Alvanley, which
appeared in the papers, and of the requisition addressed to
ths Managers of Brookes' Club, Mr. Morgan O'Connell
requested his friend Col. Hodges to deliver to Lord Alvan-
ley the following letter :
" 40, Upper Grosvenor-street, Monday evening, May 4.
" On my arrival in London this evening at half past 5, from
a review at Woolwich, Lord Alvanley put into my hands the
following letter, which had been delivered to him by Colonel
Hodges on the part of Mr. Morgan O'Connell :
" 9, Clarges-street, Monday 4.
" My Lord,—...Your Lordship thought proper to throw out
grossly offensive expressions in the House of Lords, on the
18th of last month, against my father, and indeed against the
Irish Members generally in the reform interest.
" My father on the 20th retorted in the House of Com-
mons, and in doing so is supposed to have designated you as
a bloated buffoon.

" My father remained two days in London without hear-
ing any thing from you on the subject against which he re-
torted. After his departure for Ireland, you seem to have
made up your mind to send him a species of hostile commu-
nication. You now state that this interval was occasioned by
your having been in the country, but this matters not ; I have
this day seen your letter, which it appears you have sent to the
newspapers.
" All the world knows that my father has been engaged
in an unfortunate personal transaction, that he has publicly
declared his determination never again to be similarly engaged,
and therefore that any min may so address him with safety
and impunity.
" ' Although you were decidedly the aggressor—although
you attributed unworthy and interested motives to him—al-
though in your challenge, if it is to be so considered, you do
not attempt to explain away the disrespectful expressions you
had in the first instance used towards him—although my fa-
ther's return to London would necessarily be in a few days—
although but a few days elapsed after your sending this com-
munication to Ireland, so few indeed as scarcely to admit of
the possibility of an answer, you or your friends nevertheless
hastened to give publicity to the circumstance, and follow it
up by canvassing for a requisition to Brookes's (and at the
head of which your own name, an interested party, is unbe-
comingly placed), having for its object my father's expulsion
from that club; various insulting statements, also grounded on
the same circumstances, and obviously also emanating from
the same source, went the rounds of the public papers devoted
to your party ; it was also confidently announced by your par-
tisans that you intended to assault my father if he refused you
satisfaction.

(‘ Whether Mr. O'Connell will take any notice of your
epistle, or will treat it with the contempt it merits at his hands,
is immaterial. He is ignorant of the miserable and paltry
machinations going on in the clubs of St. James's-street. It
is also immaterial whether the rumours and statements in the
public prints were or were not unfounded, because you identi-
fied yourself with them by permitting them repeatedly to ap-
pear without your denial.

" But all on this point is at an end ; your letter has
this day appeared in the newspapers, and your views are de-
veloped. It is now quite evident that your object, and that of
those with whom you act, was by no means that of obtaining
the satisfaction which one gentleman may have a right to de-
mand from another. Your object, in fact, in thus publicly
parading your willingness to fight, was quite clearly neither
more nor less than that of casting a stigma on my father, on the
party of which I am one, and so, through us, to east discredit
on the measure we advocate, and on the Government of whom
we are the supporters.

" Thinking it right that the public should know the real
character of this wretched manoeuvre, and pitying or contemn-
ing some of those who, without being ostensibly of your fac-
tion, have weakly or basely lent themselves to it as your coad-
jutors, I have thought proper thus to explain briefly the case,
together with its apparent and undoubted object, in order to
prevent further mystification.
" And I have considered you the most fitting medium
through whom to convey this succinct narrative to the public ;
but not, I confess, in the vain hope of inducing a man whom I
sincerely believe to have been appropriately designated by my
father, and who, moreover, has been deliberately guilty, as I
must conceive you to be, of this utterly ungentlemanlike and
braggadocio mode of carrying on party warfare ; not, I repeat,
in the vain hope of its inducing you to give me satisfaction,
or to call upon me for a meeting.
" But still, lest I should wrong you in this surmise, not
imitating your example in giving this communication imme-
diate publicity, I will leave you intermediately a reasonable
time, during which I have the honour to acquaint you, that I
am at your Lordship's service, and to facilitate any such possi-
bility, I have requested a friend to convey this to you.
" ' I have the honour to be, &c.
" 'MORGAN O'CONNELL.
" To the Lord Alvanley, &c."

(From the Times.)
" Shortly after I had communicated with Lord Alvanley, I
waited on Colonel Hodges at the Junior United Service Club.
Having obtained an interview with him, I formally pro-
tested against the course Mr. Morgan O'Connell had thought
it proper to pursue, but at the same time informed Colonel
Hodges that Lord Alvanley was ready to meet Mr. Morgan
O'Connell immediately.
" Colonel Hodges asked whether it should be this evening
or to-morrow. I replied this evening. Colonel Hodges then
acceded to my proposal, and added that as it was but half-past
six o'clock there would be still plenty of light.

. -
" We then separated, and returning to cur respective prin-
cipals, accompanied them a short distance out of town.
" As we were proceeding from our carriages to the ground,
Colonel Hodges took me aside and expressed his desire that
the affair should be amicably settled. He observed---' We
are come here to receive an apology from Lord Alvanley : he
has caused a requisition to be presented to the managers of
Brookes's, urging them to turn Mr. Daniel O'Connell out of
that Club.' I replied, that he could not have read the requi-
sition, for that it only required the managers to call a
general meeting of the Club. I then recalled to the recollec-
tion of Colonel Hodges the protest I had verbally made when
I had previously seen him, and I presented him with a written
statement to the same effect. This Colonel Hodges refused
to accept ; and he said that Mr. Morgan O'Connell came
there to demand satisfaction for the insult offered to his father
by the requisition made to Brookes's. I then declared that
Lord Alvanley's quarrel was with Mr. Daniel O'Connell, and
not with his son ; but that as Mr. Morgan O'Connell had
thought proper to write to him to intimate his conviction that
Lord Alvanley would be afraid to meet him, I had brought
Lord Alvanley to the ground to prove the contrary ; I again
tendered my protest.
" The ground having been measured, and the parties placed
at a distance of 12 paces from one another, Mr. O'Connell's
pistols were placed in their hands.
" Colonel Hodges and myself agreed that I should give the
signal to fire, and that it should be—' Make ready ! Fire r
I was proceeding to instruct the gentlemen concerned as to
the signals that were to be their guide, and had said, ' Gen-
tlemen, I shall use the following word—' Make ready I Fire r
when Mr. O'Connell, thinking that I had given the signal,
through mistake discharged his pistol. I had then a short
discussion with Colonel Hodges as to the light in which that
shot was to be considered, when Lord Alvanley desired me to
waive the right I conceived he had to return the fire.
" We proceeded to load again, and shots were exchanged
without effect. I then asked Colonel Hodges whether he and
his principal were satisfied? The Colonel replied that they
were not. That they still demanded an apology for the letter
to Brookes's. Here I felt a deep responsibility, and that my
situation was one of great embarrassmest : my first impres-
sion was, that I was bound not to allow Lord Alvanley to be
made answerable to one man for a quarrel with another ; and
that his having proved to Mr. Morgan O'Connell, by having
received two shots from him, how unfounded was his assertion
that Lord Alvanley was unwilling to meet him, I was then
called upon to put a stop to the proceeding, by taking him off
the ground. But, on second thoughts, I judged it more de-
sirable to allow the affair to go one step further, to prevent the
possibility of any misrepresentation of the subject.
" After another exchange of shots without effect, I with-
drew Lord Alvanley from the field without his having made
any apology to Mr. Morgan O'Connell, or any withdrawal of
what he had said respecting Mr. Daniel O'Connell.
" As we were leaving the ground, Mr. O'Connell said to
me, Colonel Darner, I give you my honour that I fired that
shot by mistake •' on which Lord Alvanley approached and
said he was satisfied Mr. O'Connell had done so.
" GEORGE DAWSON DAMER."

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
At half-past five Colonel Darner Dawson called upon Co-
lonel Hodges, and stated that although he took an entirely
different view from that taken by Mr. Morgan O'Connell, yet
Lord Alvanley was ready to give him an immediate meeting,
and proposed that Colonel Hodges should proceed with Mr.
Morgan O'Connell to Arlington-street, where Colonel Da-
rner Dawson and Lord Alvanley should meet them, for the
purpose of proceeding to a spot to be determined on for a hos-
tile encounter. Accordingly Colonel Hodges and Mr. Mor-
gan O'Connell proceeded to Arlington-street in a carriage,
and finding Colonel D. Dawson and Lord Alvanley there,
they agreed upon a meeting at a short distance beyond the turn-
pike, next the Regent's-park, on the Barnet-road. On reaching
the spot, Col. Hodges stated to Col. D. Dawson, that in order
to relieve himself from all responsibility as to the results,
he thought it his duty to declare that he was ready to re-
commend to his friend (Mr. M. O'Connell) to receive an
apology from Lord Alvanley for the part taken by him in
order to procure a meeting at Biookes's with a view to the
expulsion of his father from that Club. Colonel D. Dawson
replied, that Lord Alvanley came there to convince Mr.
Morgan O'Connell that he was ready to put matters to that
test which Mr. Morgan O'Connell had intimated that Lord
Alvanley was unwilling to do. Colonel D. Dawson then
offered a paper to Colonel Hodges, protesting against the
proceeding of Mr. Morgan O'Connell, and disputing his
right to interfere. Colonel Hodges refused to receive the
protest, and denied its admissibility. The ground was nap-
slued at twelve paces. It was agreed that Colonel Darner
Dawson should give the word, and that it should be,
" Ready—fire 1" The parties were placed—the pistols were
delivered. Colonel Dawson gave the words, and Mr. Mor-
gan O'Connell fired. Lord Alvanley did not fire, and
exclaimed that he thought the words were only given by
way of preparation, and claimed the right to fire. Colone.l
Darner Dawson agreed with Lord Alvanley, but
Hodges protested against such an interpretat;- colonel
to the words, and insisted that Lord
his opportunity, should 11^4 P
omitted
Alvanley, 'lave
mended an annl-
lgain de-
haildedColonel Hodges
sire,.
istols werl again
which being refused, p
Colonel
. • been d that
GI the parties, and it having e asv
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Hodges should give the word, both, on the signal being given,
fired without effect. Colonel Darner Dawson asked whether
Mr. Morgan O'Connell was satisfied, to which an answer in
the negative was given by Colonel Hodges. Colonel D.
Dawson then declared that he would agree to another
exchange of fire, and in case of its being ineffectual, he would
walk Lord Alvanley off the ground. The parties fired with-
out effect, and Colonel D. Dawson declaring that Lord Al-
vanley had proved to Mr. M. O'Connell that he was ready to
meet him, walked him off the ground. It is but justice to
Lord Alvanley to state, that from the moment be received Mr.
M. O'Connell's letter, down to that in which he was walked
by his friend off the ground, he exhibited a most manly, gentle-
manlike, and gallant bearing. After the parties had left the
ground, Lord Alvanley told Mr. Morgan O'Connell that
although he (Lord Alvanley) had not fired on the first shot, he
was convinced that Mr. Morgan O'Connell had not taken any
sort of advantage, and had acted with perfect fairness.
G. LLOYD HODGES.

YORK ADDRESS to LORD J.RUSSELL

The Address to Lord John Russell, from the Reformers
of York, signed by 3,000 persons, was last week forwarded
to his Lordship by E. S. Cayley, Esq., M.P., with the fol-
lowing note :

" Downing-street, April 16, 1835.
"MY DEAR LORD,—I have great pleasure in forwarding to
you an Address from the city of York, signed by 3,000 indi-
viduals, expressing their gratitude for the able and manly man-
ner in which you have conducted the Opposition in the House
of Commons. It will, I feel, be some compensation for all
the labours you have undergone in the public service, that it
has reaped for you the affection and respect of your country-
men.—l have the honour to be, &c.,
" Your Lordship's faithful servant,
"E. S. CAYLEY."
To which his Lordship returned the following answer :
" Queen-street, April 18, 1835.
" 111 T DEAR SIR,--I have received, with great pleasure and
sincere gratitude, the Address from the city of York, which
you have done me the honour to forward to me. Such testi-
monies of approbation must be valuable to every public man,
and I am proud to have been thought worthy of leading the
independent majority of the House of Commons.
" I remain, your faithful servant,
"J. RUSSELL."