The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-08 00:00:00

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—l have the honour to enclose the copy of
a letter which has been addressed by L)rd Itiue-
lagh to the South Middlesex Volunteers, and in
justice to his lordship I beg leave to request its
insertion. .

I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
LAMBTON YOUNG, Lieutenant and Hon. Sec.,
South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers.
Beaufort House, Walhlm-green, S.W.,
O. t. 7, 1868.

To THE YEMBERS OF THE SOUTH MIDDLESEX RIFE

CORPS.

Gentlemen,—l hear with very great regret that
the perzonal annoyance to which I have been sub-
jected in connexion with the prosecution of Mdme.
Rachel has been indirectly felt by you, as associated
with me in the Corps which I have for so long
and with so much pride and pleasure commanded.
I have, and shall continue to bear for myself,
the extreme injustice with which my name has
been uscd on all sides, considering it beneath me to
add one syllable to the evidence I have repeatedly
given on oath as to my perfect ignorance of even a
suspicion of Madame Rachel's proceedings ; but I
think it is now no less due to you than to myself
as your colonel, to add to that expression of sincere
regret a short statement of the whole case as far as
it has gone to my knowledge or comprehension. It
has been my misfortune to have been singled out
of a great number of gentlemen who for the idlest
of curiosities strolled occasionally into Madame
Rachel's shop.

I wish here to affirm most solemnly that the in-
sinuations that have been thrown out, that her
ostensible trade was a cloak or adjunct to one even
less reputable, bore no shadow of foundation as far
as I am concerned ; nor, after diligent inquiry from
others, have I heard a whisper of the slightest im-
morality attaching itself to her establishment. On
one occasion of my going there (then, as always, in
the open day) I have a recollection, though a very
indistinct one, of being annoyed at the vulgarity
f Madame Rachel in mentioning my name
(as for introduction) to al o Id-looking female
muffled up in veils, but whose person and name did
not remain in my memory. I first heard of Mrs.
Borrodaile's claim against me about ten months
since, when to my utter astonishment I receivel
letter from Messrs. Lewis and Lewis making a de-
mand on me for some £1,700 on her behalf. I ;
replied to that letter by telling the writers they
ought to be ashamed of themselves to make such an
application without possessing the slightest justifi-
cation beyond the statement of a lunatic, or words
to that effect. On receiving further notice of the
demand I at once placed the matter in the hands of
my solicitor, and directed him to communicate with
Mrs. Borrodaile's relations (whom I found to be
respectable), advising them to place some proper-
watch over her actions and interests. I received
the thanks of herfriends in reply. Immediately after
this I received her wild and silly letters (I should
state that none of those addressed to 'William ever
reached me—those I had were addressed to me in
my proper Christian name), and I took no other
notice of them than by placing them in the hands
of Mr. Cridland, the legal adviser of Mrs. Borro-
daile's family. Being one day at the office of this
gentleman, I heard Mrs. Borrodaile was there, and
was asked if I should like to see her. To this lat
011C3 assented,and for the first time came in contact
with and spoke to this extraordinary person. I
found her then just as wild in her assertions as she
was in her letters, and however consistent or truth-
ful she may have been in the witness-box, she
assuredly then insisted to my face that she had seen
me fifty times. Beyond offering and rendering to
her family and advisers all the assistance in my
power, I did nothing else, and waited the time
when Madame Rachel should take her trial, never
going near her shop from the moment I had reason
to suspect her improper use of my name.
From the first announcement of the police-court
inquiry to the present I have had to submit to all
the insults such a case might suggest to the most
common of men and the lowest of women—in one
instance going so far as an attack by a woman who
has been the pest of the police courts for years. I
was then requested by the police to make a charge
against her of assault, and she was convicted.
Nevertheless, the lovers of scandal thought them-
selves able to add the revengeful ravings of a sen-
tenced drunken prostitute to their list of charges
brought against me, which they supposed, and I
dare say hoped, would have been confirmed by the
elucidation of the Rachel case. Even my state-
ment that I had known this unfortunate creature by
sight for some years was construed into a personal
and more intimate knowledge of her. Many per-
! sons, even now, seem to cling to the idea that there
is still a mystery—something yet to be discovered
in this wretched and shameful case, but it is only
because they don't like to find their prophecies
lamentably fallacious. There is, indeed, no mys-
stery, I know of none whatever—the case is clear
enough when stripped of the clouds by which, in
the interest of the defence equally with the prose-
cution, it has been surrounded.
If Madame Rachel could have proved that the
smallest coin in the realm had ever passed from her
to me—or that " William" (which she probably
believed to have been my name till she discovered
the error) ever existed, she who could evince so
much ability in other respects would not have failed
to procure her own acquittal. The writer (even
under dictation) of such disreputable letters as
those admitted by the prosecutrix can be worthy of
little sympathy in the unprecedented folly of her
money losses. The purveyor of water from the

Jordan, the restorer of wrinkled countenances—
the trader alike on skins and reputations, has still
less claim to commiseration ; but I, who have been
most cruelly vilified, have been placed under a ban
of suspicions the most foul for nearly a year, with-
out the slightest ground or pretext, consider that I
am really the most to be pitied, and I can only
attribute the withholding of just expressions of ex-
culpation to the fact that certain writers have been
unwilling tQunsay,their innuendos, or honestly to
admit a mistake to which they have committed
themselves.

Mr. Knox, the magistrate at Marlborough-street,
soon hit upon the right view of the case. He at
once sent Rachel for trial, and stated that my
name had been most improperly imported into the
affair. But capital was mAde out of me, and the
public received a bias. I would specially refer to
the unwarrantable remarks of Sergeant Ballantine
at the Old Bailey, who, without a tittle of evidence
to justify it, had the audacity to imply improper
motives to me in my going into Madame Rachel's
shop. I should be sorry to change my morality
for Sergeant Ballantine's. If those who live in
glass houses should abstain from stone-throwing,
surely those who occupy regular crystal palaces
should be still more guarded in that respect.
I have given you, gentlemen, on my honour, a
full statement of all I know of the Rachel case. It
is but a simple act of justice to myself, as your com-
manding officer, and to you, as inember3 of the
volunteer regiment under my command.—l have
the honour to remain, yours faithfully,
Oct. 7, 1868. KINELAGir.

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