The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-22 00:00:00

MR. COBBETT.

The following letter has been addressed to the
Editor of the Morning Chronicle:—

BARN ELM VARM, JULY 21, 1829.

SlR,—ln your artide, published softie days ttgo,
containing remarks on the declaration of Mr. Hoof
and myself, you said that the• people of England
were in a state of beastly ignorance; and therefore,
unfit to he let Mom to choose their own representa-
tives in Parliament. The pirodf of this beastly igno-
rance was, their late opposition to the Catholic
In answering you, with that indignation which evert
an English dog ought to have felt-in such a case, I
said, that you, above all men, should have abstained
from this charge against the people of England, see-
ing that up to the math of December, 1821, inclu-
sive, you tilled your columns with calumnies on the
Catholic Religion, and on Catholic
.Priests, and re-
presented both, as essentially hostile to liberty, to the
enlightening of the people, and to pubte happiness
but that, in the month of Feb. 1825, Mr. O'Con-
nell, the Treasurer of the Catholic Rent, having
come to England-with his Deputation, you became
all of a sudden- converted to the Catholic faith; and
began to cry aloud against the prejudices and the
ignorance of those who opposed Emancipation. You
could not deny these facts; you dared not do that
the facts are recorded in yotir own columns; and,
therefore, you stood convicted of now charging the
people of England with beastly ignorance, because a
large part of them held the same opinions respecting
the Catholic Religion and Priests, which you held
and taught only one month before your miraculous
conversion.

You could not extricate yourself from this charge,
and therefore you have, in your paper of Saturday
last, sought revenge on the person who made it,
and made it, too, simply in defence of his calumniated
countrymen. Your revenge consists of qffecting lobe-
lievc in what you well know to be a lie; namely, that,
under a false pretence, I actually received money.
The story which you pretend to believe is this, as
related by Staunton, the publisher of O'Connell's
newspaper, called the Dublin Register. Staunton
said that he paid me monthly a certain sum for leave
to re-publish my Register In Ireland; and that, as
soon as he discontinued to do that, I began to attack
O'Connell.-

The true story is this ; and I invite Mr. Staun-
ton to contradict it if he please. This Mr. Staun-
ton had, without any leave of mine, re-published
the whole of my Reeci.sier weekly, in a weekly paper
set up for that purpose, and had been doing this for
a long while, when I put a step to it by a threat of
prosecution, the Register being at that time a copy-
right work, not having a stamp. When the depu-
tation anti all the efforts of 1825 were taking place,
Staunton wrote to me to propose to pay for leave
to re-publish. I wrote to him my terms, which
were these Twenty pounds per month, I ceas-
ing to give leave at a month's notice, and he quit-
ting at any day that he pleased." lie wrote to me
agreeing to my terms, suggesting however, that the
money ought to conic out of Me Catholic Rent; iu
answer to his letter I wrote, that with regard to the
Rent, I had nothing and would have nothing to do;
that it was a transaction of business between him
and me, and that as such I should consider it.
Let Mr. Staunton deny this statement, let him
deny the statement; and then we shall see what sort
of stuff he is made of. But, in the mean while, the
pages of the Register are quite sufficient to refute the
base insinuation. Staunton was pay ing me for copy-
right from the fall of the year 1824, until the month
of June, 182.5. I think it, was June, if not later,
though I am not positive on this point. He paid
me, at any tate, up to June, 1825. Now, look in
the Register, and you will see that I began to at-
tack Mr. O'Connell in the month of March, 1825,
and thlt my attacks on him never ceased until the
25th of May, 1829. The pages of the Register
show this—show Staunton's ins'nuations to be ut-
terly false, and reflect very little credit on you, who
affect to believe in the truth of those insinuations.—
Staunton has my letter in answer to his suggestion
about the Rent. Let him produce that letter, or let
him pass for what every man will say that he is.
With regard to the cause of Reform, it must suc-
ceed. Precisely how it may be accomplished, and
what sort of reform it may be, I cannot tell ; but the
" people must be let loose" in some way or other.—
There i.s now no man who does not see that a very
great and thorough change must and will take place.
In the hope that it may be a change for the better,
I remain, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant
COBBETT.

On Monday evening a respectably dressed
man passed through the gate at Waterloo-bridge, accom-
panied by a female, with whom he was quarrelling. When
he reached the centre of the bridge he charged the woman
with infidelity, and immediately leaped over the battle-
ment, but luckily alighted on his feet upon the outer ledge.
A gentleman passing seized him by the collar, and with as-
sistance rescued him from his perilous situation. When he
found that he was safe, he fell down in a fit, from which
it was some time before he recovered.

The investigation of the Magistrates and Co-
roner into the fatal catastrophe at Borisokeen has impli-
cated JAMES Ilonatss, a policeman, as having shot Tnos.
SMYTH through the head, and ROBERT SELLENGER,
policeman, as having shot DANIEL WHELAN on the fair
day. JOHN fIonAN, JOHN FARRELL, and DENIS MEALY,
the other victims, were killed by gun-shots fired from the
house of JOHN LIEcEa, an inhabitant of the town.

A dreadful murder was committed at Boriso-
keen on the 17th inst. A man named JOHN BRYAN, said
in the morning, that he could prove the innocence of
HODGINS ; and at half-past ten o'clock he was attacked
and murdered.

Mr. Wm. RUTHERFORD, the tragedian, of
New York, and latterly of the West London Theatre, was
found dead yesterday morning in his bed, at the Sun and
Appl,i Tree, an obscure public house in Drury-lane. He
had been drinking there till a late hour on Monday night,
in company with several persons, and he afterwards went
out and obtained a quantity of laudanum, which he took in
the presence of several persons who were acquainted with
him, but who did not remark it, as he was in the habit of
taking this drug as a stimulant. He then retired to his
room, and in the morning was discovered quite dead.
An inquest was held upon the body yesterday, and a ver-
dict was returned---" That the deceased took a quantity
of laudanum, being at the time in an unsound state of
mind."

In the Journal du Conzmerce of last Satur-
day, we find a comparative statement of the produce of
indirect imposts during the six first months of the present
year and that of the corresponding half-year of 1827.
The increase of the present year on the revenue of 1827
has amounted to 6,345,000 francs. As compared with
the half year of 1828, the revenue presents a deficiency of
9,526,000 francs. In comparing these results to those
manifested by the official returns of April, the increase
appears to have been at that period 4,469,000 francs, for
the first quarter of 1829, above the corresponding period
of 1827. To maintain the same proportion in the reve-
nue, the increase ought to have amounted, on the Ist of
July, to 9,000.000. This, however, has not been the
case, various branches not having even retained their
usual proportion. The duties on excisable liquors, for in-
stance, presented an increase of 306,000 francs; they
have now dimini,hed by I,l2l,ooo,—difference, 1,426,000
francs. The fall in the various indirect taxes—such as
public coaches, &c., was only 7,000 francs ; it is now
equal to 614,000. But the produce of the lottery, which
only presented an increase of 430,000, has been aug-
mented to 1,542,000, for the six months. In comparing
closely the statements given by the Journal du Com-
merce, other variations will be found in abundance relit
Live to the several branches of the revenue. The most
important are. in the stamp and enstom-dudes, the forme
of which have been nearly doubled, whereas the latter
present an increase of only 596,000 francs. The Post-
office revenue seems to be the only branch which bas
steadily maintained its increase, having been nearly dotibled.