The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-09 00:00:00

(TILE ANSWER.)

et
tre of
letter
profession, sm.,—,l have no recollection of the conversa-
tion to which you allude, nor was I aware that I had
ever seen you ; but having no doubt of the purity
of your motives, and ever disposed to receive with
deference
I am
may
froycom amtekfitig ornmmbe
offence a h
which you have addressed to me. But I must be
what
far
allowed to express in my turn, my astonishment that
you should have heard discussions in various circles
upon the subject of a toast which you very errone-
ously suppose to be drunk by compulsion on the
Northern Circuit, or that you should have thought
yourself called upon to interfere with your advice
and opinion upon a subject which I must suppose
very much out of the scope of your usual contem-
plations. I was not aware that the festivities of the
Northern Circuit were deemed of sufficient import-
ance to become the topics of polite conversation in
the metropolis; nor could I have imagined, without
such grave testimony as you= letter has afforded me,
that any toast which forms a part of our innocent
and mirthful solemnities would be deemed by any
well-ordered mind so efficacious as to make it the
duty and pleasure of every man to seduce his neigh-
bour's child, or sleep with his friend's wife ! These
are your own words. Allow me to say, that they im-
port a very serious charge against the Northern Cir-
cuit. There is no individual connected with that body
capable of proposing a toast that would have such
singular, not to say miraculous consequences, as to
convey into a duty the breach of the most obvious
rules of morality, and the plainest injunctions of reli-
gion. 'We pretend to no such magic, nor do we ad-
mit that the toast to which I presume you allude,
but of which you ought never to have been apprized,
can by possibility have the remotest influence to
excite either opinions or dispositions inconsistent
with any moral duty. lam not called upon to de-
fend any usage which I find long established, and
which has been acquiesced in by wiser and better
men than I pretend to be, to say nothing of such'
high authorities as Mr. Justice Park and Mr. Justice
Richardson. I might refer you to the Lord Chan-
cellor, whose example, I am sure, will be entitled
to, and will be treated with high respect by every
member of the Church of England. But it may af-
ford some relief to the great anxiety you entertain
on the subject, as well as satisfaction to myself, that
,I should state to you the only ground on which we
adhere to the usage of our predecessors--a ground
which, I feel assured, will merit and receive your
entire approbation. Know then, Sir, that the toast
is not intended to excite, in any decent mind, an un-
becoming idea or propensity; hilt that we consider
it as the ancient, honest, English, manly mode of
disclos:ng with simplicity and brevity, our homage
and deference to the female sex, arid our entire pu-
rity and utter aversion to all the canting affectation
of morality, the hypocritical sanctity, and the frau-
dulent pretensions to piety, which are creeping fast
upon the present age, and which, under the colour
of an over curious refinement, and an exquisite de-
licacy of sentiment and expression, are too often
found to disguise the lewdest imaginations, the most
vicious habit,-., and the most profligate morals.
" 1 have the honotir to he, Sir, &c.
SCARLETT."

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.