The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-13 00:00:00

MR. WEaSTI7,I WEDDEP.,BURNE.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sin—Ac an ect of cominon justice, I beg the-favour o 7 Your.
enabling me thus immediately to r&pel one of the most deli'-
.
beratefy false and Malignant libels that ever issued from the
press against an individual-1 mean, Sir, the paragraph which
appeared some day's ago in several of the London Journals, and
which purported to relate an occurrence, Of certainly a most
unpleasant-nature, which took place in my house at Boulogne-
sur-Mer, last week. What did then occur was this :
One of my servants, in a .state of frenzy, from inebriety and
passion, after insulting me in the most unprovoked 'and grOS
manner, and without even having been first struck by me, ?brew
me down, and threatened to kill me, in the presence of another
servant, who otr,r,d no assistance. Finding myself so situ-
ated,and being almost rethausted by the violentana atrocious at-
tack upon my.person, and havini, no other mea-ls of disengag-
ing myself from a struggle which threatened my life, in defence
of which alone I was reluctantly obliged to avail myself of a
dirk cane which I accidentally had in my hand (having in vain
attempted to disengage myself by using the cane itself). At
this crisis the interposition of. my friends .fortunately relieved
me from my perilous situation, by removing the man by force,
and administering, by my directions,- every care that kindness,
could suggest to counteract any bad. effects from the injuries
which he is now fully sensible his own conduct provoked and
justified.

In regard, Sir, -to the allusions made to my domestic con-
cerns and arran;..,cments in the paragraph in question, they are
all as deliberately and-diabolically false as the other calumni-
ous assertions ; and the moment the forms of law will admit, I
shall bring the publisher of this libel into Court, where he will
have every opportunity of justifyingit ; and where, if I fail to
discover the base and cowardly Author of so cruel and unpro-
voked a calumny, it will be for a Jury of
..my own country to
establish, whether the British Press is to be considered a public
blessing or a ptiv:!te •curse ; or whether it is to- be henceforth
the avowed anti licensed channel of conveying the poisoned
Shafts of the base anti vindietive calumniator to the bosoms of
private families,. and of thereby violating with impunity' every
feeling and sanctuary of domestic life.
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
J. 'WEBSTER WEDDERBURNE.
P. S. The insatiate and brutal appetite for slander evinced
by some members •of the press against any one whose public
principles are at variance with their own is, indeed, incredible;
and the security of every thing most estimable in private_life:
demands some check upon so -.shameful an abuse of its noblest:
privileges. A Sunday Paper actually had the audacity to pub-
lish the libellous paragraph, of which I have been .the
after having.been.in vain solicited to insert, and • having been'
furnished with a copy of this letter in contradiction, and. which
the Editor of THE Bum. (with a feeling that does him gr eta
honour, did for which he has my best - thanks) was pleasea to
insert immediately, and wholly to suppress the- calumnious
matter, which has been seized upon with a desolating activity
by others, who' shall, however,' assuredly be made to answer to
me elsewhere for an injury that -nothing .. could justify, and
which nothing can atone for. • I am, Sir, &c.-••
August 13, 1821. J. WEBSTER WEDDERBVRNE.