The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-25 00:00:00

LORD BROUGHAM.

(From the Morning Herald of Wednesday.)
We published, yesterday, in our first edition, the rumour
that prevailed as to the death of this distinguished nobleman.
We expressed, at the same time, doubts as to the accuracy
of the report. In a second edition, we had the pleasure of
announcing the gratifying truth that his lordship has escaped
unhurt from the effects of the accident which destroyed his
carriage.

In -a
letter which Lord Brougham addressed, after the oc-
currence, to Mr. Eden, residing at his lordship's house in
town, the particulars of the accident are narrated. His lord-
ship, Mr. Leader, and Mrs. Shafto, were upset a few miles
from Brougham Hall. The carriage was dashed to pieces.
The post-boy was seriously injured; but none of the party
inside was hurt. " As a proof of this," adds his lordship, " we
walked thirteen miles within three hours after the accident."
The rumour that the noble and learned lord had been killed
—" kicked to death" as the rumour had it—was set on foot,
we are told, by a well-known fashionable count, who having
received a letter from Mr. Shafto, yesterday morning, in
which the accident was mentioned, took the letter to 'White's,
and by way of a joke ( ) read it publicly in the coffee room,
in such a way as to justify the rumour that the result of the
upset was the death of Lord Brougham.

COUNT D'ORSAY AND THE RUMOUR OF LORD

BROUGHAM'S DEATH.

(From the Morning Herald of yesterday.)
The following letter from Count d'Orsay appeared in the
Post of yesterday :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST.

" Sir,—l have seen the following paragraph in the Morn-
ing Herald of this day, relating to the reported death of
Lord Brougham :
" 'The rumour that the noble and learned lord had been
killed—" kicked to death," as the rumour had it—was set on
foot, we are told, by a well known fashionable count, who
having received a letter from Mr. Shafto yesterday morning,
in which the accident Was mentioned., took the letter to
White's, and, by way of a joke ('.l, read it publicly in the
coffee room, in such a way as to justify the rumour that .the
result of the upset was the death of Lord Brougham.'
" I believe this paragraph alludes to me, because I did
mention to many persons in the course of yesterday that I had
seen a letter from Mr. Shafto, announcing the dreadful acci-
dent to Lord Brougham. The statement, however, that I
took the letter to White's, or to any other club house, and
read it by way of joke, is an infamous falshoal, which I can-
not refer to without indignation. Thaletter which Isaw
considered to be genuine; and you will readily believe, sir,
that my feelings yesterday were anything but jocular. The
person who could suppose that I could be capable of making
a joke about Lord Brougham's death can know nothing of
me, nor (I should think) of the feelings of a gentleman.
" The facts of this business, so far as I have had anything
to do with them, are as follow :—_ _ _

"Mr. Montgomery, a friend of Lord Brougham and Lord
Wellesley, called upon me on Monday afternoon, in a state
of the most distressing grief. He had received a letter from
Mr. Shafto, dated Brougham-hall, Saturday, detailing the •
dreadful occurrence very nearly as it was detailed in :your
paper of this morning. Mr. Montgomery, when he called
upon me, was on his way to Fern-hill to communicate. the
contents of this letter to Lord Wellesley, and I never saw
any one in a more deplorable state of grief and agitation than
Mr. Montgomery was. This morning I had a letter from
Mr. Montgomery, written at Fern-hill, and he was as strongly
as ever under the distressing conviction of Lord Brougham's
death.

" It has since come to my knowledge that Mr. Shafto's
letter was intended as a joke. I leave others to explain the
motives for so heartless a hoax.

" I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,
" Cte. d'ORSAY.

"Tuesday Evening, Oct. 22, 1839."
Count d'Orsay (who, of course, readily fathers the impu-
tation of being the "arbiter elegantiaruna") appears—in-
deed he says he is—extremely indignant at its being sup-
posed that he could be " capable of making a joke about
Lord Brougham's death." We know nothing of the
count's capabilities, though we have heard that he- is both
a wit and a whig ; and, in either case, might consider
himself qualified to perpetrate a joke at the expense even
of his dearest friend. But, setting this aside, let us ask
Count d'Orsay what construction his friend Mr. Shafto,
whom he admits to be the author of this " heartless hoax,"
is likely to put upon the opinion which the count ha's expres-
sed of one who could concoct such a jole ? Count•d'Oesay
declares that to imagine a joke on such an occasion is to
" know nothing of the feelings of a gentleman ." and yet,
while he reprehends the Morning Herald in still stronger
language for supposing that his feelings could be " jocular,"
he transfers far more than the -odium which he ascribes to
us to the shoulders of his correspondent,—winding up with
the tranquil reflection that he leaves "to others to explain
the motives" which originated the letter.
We are happy to find that Count d'Orsay is disposed to
treat the matter an se'rieux ?—it will give us a better opinion
of the class of which he is the presumed leader : but; at the
same time, we trust that, in his eagerness to exonerate him-
self, and shine in print, he may not be held to have placed
himself in the predicament of censuring in " others' that
which he so studiously deprecates in his own case.