The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

against me, quite correct. I use no deception ; but, if it be
inconvenient to return to make this formal entry at the time,
it becomes a crime on the following morning to write down
4. I ought to enter 1. This, gentlemen, is a position too
absurd to be seriously contended for. There must be a pal-
pable failure of serious charges against me, before such non-
sense would be advanced in the way of accusation. . .

I beg, respectialy7to—caifiour attention to the provisions
made by the gaol act, in reference to the book in which the
chaplain of a prison is bound to enter his name.
4th Geo. IV., cap. 64, s. 34.—" And be it further enacted,
that from and after the commencement of this act, there
shall be kept in every prison to which this act shall extend
a book, in which the chaplain, and any other officers of the
said prison not residing within such prisons, but attending
on, or required to attend on such prison, shall regularly in-
sert the date of every such visit made by such chaplain, or
other such officer respectively ; and every such entry shall
be signed with the name, and in the proper handwriting of
such chaplain, or other officer respectively ; and shall contain
such remarks as may be thought necessary on the occasion
of any such visit."

It will require I apprehend, a more shrewd lawyer than
the inspector of prisons would claim to be thought, to
point out where I have offended against this law, ' I have re-
gularly inserted the date of every visit, the proper hand-
writing has always been adopted, except in a very few in-
stances, where, having forgotten to make the entry on my
arrival, the clerk has supplied my name, to hinder confusion,
before I have again entered the office. .

The law in section 30, as to keeping the times in my
journal, is 'so expressed, that the two best lawyers in Eng-
land might argue pro and con for a month, without convinc-
ing each other, or any one else : and it is upon the interpre-
tation of that clause, which only affects entries in my journal,
that the attempt is now being made to dishonour me. That
clause thus reads--" And lie shall further keep a journal, in
which he shall enter the times of his attendance on the per-
formance of his duty" ! but whether that attendance upon
the performance of his duty is to be restricted to that part
only of his duty to which he attends within the walls, or whe-
ther it embraces his whole duty, would, as I have said, occupy
men whose lives are devoted to the study of the law, much
time to determine ; whether I therefore interpret it in a more
limited or in a more extended way, ought not, in justice, or
in equity, to be brought up as a charge against me, an un-
professional man ; especially as the clause in question does
not apply to the attendance book.
I fancy I can perceive the smile of satisfaction arising, as
the morning dawn after a night of peculiar darkness and dis-
quietude., he will surely forget to deal with one small portion
of evidence! which must have escaped him ! there is yet hope !
I shall yet prevail!. No, gentlemen, I shall not forget, that
Mr. Archer has said, " Mr. Salmon has pointed out to me,
on one or two occasions, that Dr. Buck had entered in the
book, that he had remained a longer time than was actually
the case." He was immediately asked by Captain Williams,.
had you any means of satisfying yourself of the fact? In
reply, he says—" I had. I sometimes, when I came to the
prison, found that the time entered by Dr. Buck, as the time
at which he professed to have left, had not yet arrived."
Remember, gentlemen, this refers to a book open to all,
obliged to be seen by all, lying open on an office table. How
brazen-faced the chaplain must have been..! how easily might
the particular entries have been pointed out, before you and
me ! We might then have been able to form a clear judg-
ment, as to whether the entries of time, were in my hand-
writing or in the hand-writing of another party, who might,
through mistake have made such entries ; for that this whole
matter is one of pure conspiracy, I do not hesitate to assert.
You will not, I am sure, forget, that it has been over and
over again sworn, that on leaving the prison in the afternoon,
I did not enter my time of departure, but did it on the fol-
lowing morning. These statements cannot both be true :
you must reject one or other of the declarations ; and in either
case, the evidence brought forward must be regarded as worth-
less, as not worthy of credit. Can you for a moment suppose
that with Mr. Archer's nice feelings of honour, he could after
such damning proofs of my guilty conduct, were clear, and
manifest, in his estimation ; can you, I say, suppose that he
would day after day, continue his friendly calls to my vestry;
pass a few minutes in the midst of his and my labours, in'
friendly converse ; continue his habits of leaving the prison
with me, always continuing in my company, until the differ-
ent directions we requirM to take separated us? Can you
think he really thus acted, from before the month of January
last, up to the twentieth of March, at least, when you have it
in evidence, that in his usual friendly way, he went up into
my vestry—and I not being there, and my journal lying wide
open and exposed—in all the freedom allowable in friendship,
he read the entry I had made. Can you suppose it possible,
if he really thought me the guilty being, he now fears I am,
that there should not have been the slightest cessation of our
intimacy, until the arrival of Captain Williams? My vestry
up to that moment, continued the scene of almost daily inter-
course ; and our snuff boxes interchanged hands, in all the
warmth of good feeling, so far as mortal man could have sup-
posed.

- The charge, gentlemen, is monstrous, it is impossible:
were it otherwise, your surgeon, whose honour is undoubted,
would necessarily sink to a very low ebb in the estimation of
every virtuous mind.

Permit me, for a few short moments, to call your attention
to the effects of heaping up one charge after another upon any
man. Suppose a mariof honour, accused of wilfully making
false statements, in a letter written in the fair and honest
discharge of his dutieS, to his employers, to men generally,
and to God, that charge, of itself, would soon fall to the
ground. Not so : another accusation is heaped on the former,
of making verbal accusations not founded on facts. The
friends of the party accused begin to stagger ; when a secret
accuser suggests a specific act of lying, which he well knows
cannot be rebutted by evidence, the only competent witness
to establish innocency being unknown as to name and resi-
dence ; a fourth charge is heaped on the victim, of intention-
ally endeavouring to create erroneous impressions on the
minds of his employers. " Oh," say the former friends of
the accused, " this must be a guilty man ! What man of
common honesty, what man endowed with a spark of upright-
ness, would bring such charges, if he were not absolutely
certain of their truth. We must have been deceived : our
poor friend has unhappily been brought under the influence
of temptation. Not so, says the accuser, you judge far too
highly of this fellow. I can prove that he is a very irreligi-
ous man. He has pretended that it was his duty to guard
the people against error. ' Moreover, he has been a fomentor
of rebellion." " Enough," says the world. "Enough," say all
who have been friends in name only. "We have been sadly
deceived in him, and indeed continues one now. I begin to
think on the subject. I have remarked many very suspici-
ous circumstances attaching to him. Whilst I erroneously
thought him to be an open hearted man, I attributed many
circumstances to mistake, to casual error ; I now see clearly
that they have been very villainous transactions." " Right,"
says the adversary, " you are coming to your right mind.
Moreover, be is a bad churchman; he is next door to a dis-
senter ; he allows a layman to read prayers for him when he
is sick; and has (but this must be a secret between us) he
has prayedfor Prince Albert!" " Horrible, most horrible !"
is the reply. " How I have been deceived !" " Oh, my dear
friend," says the other, " you have not heard all—he has
called a novel, written by Hannah More, a story book, a
book of amusement ; whereas you and I well know it is far
more agreeable reading than the Bible ; he has also falsely
and wickedly ventured to give an opinion as to the ability of
the children in our school to read, without having duly pre-
pared himself; by lengthened study, for such an arduous un-
dertaking. Moreover, as you well know, he has fomented
a spirit of disunion amongst all office-bearers." " Nay,"
says the wondering listener, " I do not think that can be the
true. I have always thought him to be a peacemaker. You
are deceived in him." " I assure you," is the ready re-
ply, you can scarcely conceive the extent of the evil,
he has said to your disadvantage ; but he is now going to
make his reply. Whatever he may say, or prove, be very
cautious of letting it make any lasting impression, for I have
in reserve further proofs of his abandoned habits of falsifica-
tion, (in the detection of which you may perhaps be able to
render me some little aid,) you will otherwise be in danger
of being deceived. I should indeed bring forward more
charges now, but mine are enough at one time. He will
never be able to clear himself from them ' • but if, like the
mangled worm, he should survive, without fear of its being
called persecution, I shall bring forward a second series, for
there is no end of his wickedness. Gentlemen, these thoughts,
though expressed in a homely way, do pass through the minds
of mere acquaintances, to the prejudice of their former asso-
ciates, when one charge after another arises, as in my case to
the number of thirteen, without having even now the certain
knowledge that there may not be a new importation.
I have been replying to the charge of a crime, which had
no motive to induce to it. What consequence could it be,
whether the chaplain of your prison were three •hours or six
hours daily in your prison? If neglect of duty were ascer-
tained, you could have rectified it; if superfluity, I apprehend
you would not have regarded it. Observe, from my letter
of appointment, all my time is yours, so far as you wish to
employ it ' • all my productive time you have claimed, and
have really had the benefit of it. Gentlemen, I have done
with this charge. I have, as my manner is, shunned no part
of it.

I protest against it as altogether illegal, for want of speci-
cation, and as absolutely devoid of support by a particle of
evidence. As far however as an unsubstantial thing could
be crushed, I believe it has met its fate ; and that I am now
left with one remaining charge, to which I have been called
upon to reply. Before, however, I enter upon its considera-
tion, I do from my heart, with all the solemnity of the most
sacred oath, declare that the charge, to which I have been
replying, is utterly devoid of truth ; it is an awful instance of
the way in which wounded pride, and dire revenge. may lead
they votaries to believe, that they are speaking the truth,
whilst they are at the greatest possible remove from it. As
my hope is in God, I declare my innocence of every part and
parcel of the wickedness ascribed to me.
(To be concluded in our next )