The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-15 00:00:00

In the one ease turnkeys state the impress,,..._
their minds nearly two years since ; in the other, imprt.
sions cocamitted to paper 18 months ago, some short time af-
ter the expressions were uttered: '
We all know that nothing is more common than a misun-
derstanding of sentiments uttered extemporaneously by any,
even the best and most accurate orator—the opinions of the
most correct speakers in both houses of parliament have
been unintentionally mis-stated, though attempted to be
taken down at the moment by the most skilful short-hand
writers—men whose business is to report, whose bread de-
pends on their abcuracy, and who have every conceivabh
motive to be strictly correct. You- yourselves, as public
men and public speakers, know. that your clearly expressed
opinions have been by honest and upright reporters entirely
perverted ; that you have been represented by such persons
as stating the very opposite of what you had really said.
Such inaccuracies are of such frequent, such daily occur-
rence, that you must be well aware, especially in forensic
speaking, that the constant practice is to refer the state-
ments taken down at the time to the speaker, that he may
remove mistakes which cannot but occur even with the most
talented stenographer. Your own proceedings ,in this in-
quiry have furnished abundant proofs, that notwithstanding
your education, your accustomed habit of taking down evi-
dence : and in one or two instances which fell under my ob-
servation, your mastery in short-hand writing ; Z will add,
notwithstanding your every desire to take down every word,
every sentiment, most impartially, that you frequently erred,
that you frequently missed the meaning of a witness, though
the words were deliberately uttered. How constantly has it
happened that half a dozen persons hearing the same sermon
preached, actually conceive in half a dozen different waysof
the sentiment the preacher uttered, and this not amongst the
rude and illiterate—not amongst men smarting under sup-
posed injury--not amongst men who openly acknowledge
that they dislike the speaker, and are proved to have said
many disrespectful things of him, and wished his removal,
but amongst friends and real lll.lrtirorc rsf •1... -1

Ana made on

Can you, u;

r these circumstances,

dence to the

mphessions of persons •of the
Can you act safely on their

rank of your, inferior office,.
belief; expressed now at the lap.s,
tent of holding up your chaplain, (to whose knowledge these
supposed words were never brought that he might clear them
up) to degradation ? Can you on such testimony consign to
ruin a person who having addressed nearly 1,000 lectures and
sermons• to prisonerk since his appointment in February,
1838, is reported in three of them to have offended. Once
in saying that a sinner's justification was not on the ground
of his own good works: Once for expressing disapproba-
tion of the sentiment of one verse in the new version of the
Psalms ; and once, once only, of uttering dangerous senti-
ments adverse to prison government. Ea gee rara accident,
non temere in agendis nepotiis computantur.
You cannot, gentlemen. as men „,

of 18 months, to the in-

•-•• 111G11. Willi
-
Auuw the world, as valuing the character of the ministry
generally, silence a minister of Christ on such suspicious
evidence ; any man, the most careful, the most upright,
could
.be ruined if such testimony were allowed to prevail.
These observations might be justly addressed to you, if I
admitted the-trutli-of•the statements niadt'against me, which
Ido not. But on what evidence is that charge founded ?
Your information is derived from some papers kept secret
during 18 months, and now, for the first time, brought to thr-
light of day, that they 7-
guilt, and utter worthlessness as a clergyman.
pressions not put to paper, I will not insult you so far as to
suppose you will allow me to weigh even as a feather in the
scale. Let as, then, consider the evidence connected with
these papers. •

may become damning proofs

For the ini-

,1 gid not go to

; on the occasion I made the re-
port on my own suggestion. I was ordered to draw up a r -
Port. The governor ordered me. I believe the governo-
chaplain were then on extremely unfriendly terms.
know that the governor has much influence over me in re-

I do not

gard to keeping or losing my appointmer
her having threatened_ to report the
swear that I have not done it.
" I did not go to the chapel on purpose to make the report
Dr. Buck might have s--en me writing at the very time it
was sr--

goVerno

I cannot

'peaking from the pulpit. I was not writing' the repor
put in. Ido not know of any turnkey besides larizz::'
at the time. I think I wrote down in chapel the chapter and
verse, and the names of the prisoners to report 'upon ; the
prisoners seemed to 6,1'"

f writing

Teat notice o

• " i was ordered to draw up a report. 'The governor ordered
me. I believe the governor and chaplain were then on ex-
tremely unfriendly terms.
" I have often said I did not like Dr. Buc
said I wished him discharged."
. -

I have never

Wrote a note at the time at the re-