The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-01-26 00:00:00

THE RATHCORMAC AFFAIR.

AtChdeaeott Ryder has published a defence of his ciniduct in
the affair of Ratiicormac • and the whig papers who had been
filled with the vilest slanders against him, have cautiously ab-
staiged from noticing his letter. This is indeed whig justice--
but Mt to,ci“-r.

:Arci,,,;(4:c,,n Ryder asserts, and no doubt can prove, that he
woe sent for hy the Widow Ryan, whose name has been so often
mentioned in this unhappy affair, the fact being that the woman
wished to pay him what was justly due, and had it for him in
her pocket; but dreading assassination if 'she paid it of her own
free will, was obliged, for her protection, to pretend to yield to
ford.

He asserts, and no doubt will prove, that the people of the
parish offered no resistance, but that the military were opposed
by a band of strangers, brought to the place from a distance,
and organised, no doubt, for murder.
He asserts, what he has no need of proving, that all the story
of his demanding the money from the woman while her son lay
dead on the ground, is a lie of the first magnitude, and therefore
perfectly worthy of the mouth of O'Connell.
He asserts, and no doubt will prove, that the military acted
with much forbearance; and that if they had not promptly fired
on the ruffians by' whom they were surrounded, their lives were
in the utmostopardy.
He asserts,' and no doubt will prove, that he lived on good
term's with his parishioners, until they were goaded 'on by other
in'tluence. We need hardly Say What, to oppose his just dues, and
tha now his Pi otestant'congregation is scared away flora him.
This is in fact what the murderers behind the curtain desired,
mid Which, 'if they are permitted to 0 on in their present career
or tincheeked wickedm!ss, they will effect in hundreds of other
pariShes of Ireland.
On the whole. Archdeacon Ryder's defence is complete ; 'and
the. infamous lies of those who calumniated hiin, are exposed
foi ever: There must be a strict inquiry made into the affairs
li&thcotinac, InnisCarra, and other places ; and the Parliathent-
arY Committee to Which they are refeired Will, if they be tealouS
in discharge of their duty, INK ENNEL THE REAL ASSASSiNS
—lie they priests or lawyer's, members of Parliament or bishops.
Until the black brotherhood be brought before the light of day,
Ireland will continue to be the field 'Of blood. We shall not
forget the subject.—Aye.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE COUNTY OF CARLOW.

. .
GENTLENIEN,-Mr. O'Connell, in a letter addressed to the
"men Of Westminster," has had the daring effrontery to re-
peat, in a more offensive manner, and to attempt to justify, the
fvul and opprobrious epithets contained in his former calumni-
ous reply to my address to you of the 20th of October.
It.was my determination, as stated in my letter of the 13th of
November, not to take any further notice of Mr. O'Connell's
audacious assertions, but to wait 'patiently until an opportunity
was afforded before a competent tribunal of refuting his denials,
and of proving, by indisputable evidence, that the statements
contained in my address were, each and every of them, in sub-
stance, if not to the very letter, correct.
There is, however, a point beyond which it is impossible for
human; nature to endure unmerited calumny; and to submit
longer in silence might be construed into an admission on my
part that Mr. O'Connell's assertions are founded in fact.
It may be. mighty convenient for him to talk about "the pri-
vacy of confidence .being violated, and private letters published
and misapplied," but whose fault is it—and how stands the case
between us on this point ? We entered into an engagement
binding in honour on us both. I performed my part ; he for-
feited his written guarantee. I had no redress, and the only
satisfaction I makingild have was by the whole transaction
public, to " preclude him from ever deceiving any one else
agailL"
Had Mr. O'Connell fulfilled his contract, and I had divulged
either the conversation or the letters that had passed between
us, " I admit, I fairly admit," I should have richly merited the
epithets he has bestowed; but when he basely abandoned his
engagement, ;tin Ito be debarred the privilege of proving, from
his own communications, that my charge against him was well
founded ?

.1 hold it to be an incontrovertible axiom in the.laws which
regulate the proceedings between man and man in affairs the
fulfilment of which depends wholly on the honour of the parties,
!that, so long as both of them perform the compact they have
entered into, so long everything that passes between them of a
confidential nature is to be held sacred; but that whenever
either of them violates his part of the engagement, from that
moment every obligation of secrecy is by him discharged, and
all that has occurred becomes the property of the aggrieved
person, to be by him uaed in any manner that circumstances
may require, either in vindication of his own character, or in
support of any charge he may feel compelled to make against
the violator of the contract. If such were not the rule by which
the conduct of mankind was governed and controlled, vast indeed
would be the advantage which the knave would have over the
unsuspecting and honest man; the former would only have to
delude his victim by plausible pretexts. and promises, and, by
marking them " confidential," preclude his knavery from being
established, whenever it suited his purpose to abandon or betray
the patty who had relied on and confided in Iris honour..
Away then, I say, with all the cant and hypocrisy about
breach of confidence : whatever implied understanding might
have been supposed to exist, that the communications between
Mr. O'Connell and myself were confidential, has been put an
end to by Mr. O'Connell, who, by his previous conduct, justified
me in the course I originally pursued; and as he still persists
in his atrocious attacks on my veracity, I feel myself fully war-
ranted in publishing the private letter alluded to in my former
address, of which Mr. O'Connell has, for obvious reasons,
thodght it most prudent not to take the lightest notice. I shall,
however, refrain from doing so hr the present; but if he has the
hardihood to again give utterance to his vile slanders on mT
personal character and credibility, I will at once put to the test
hie veracity, and, by. the production of that letter, give him an
opportunity of proving, either that he had sufficient authority
for making the unsolicited and unlooked-for communications to
me, which in "-IA letter he represents he had, and of explaining
whether it u, in consequence of his being called on to account
for, and re‘reel, the second £lOOO, or for what other reason, that
the allurements he then held out. were not realized—or, if he
cannot prove this satisfactorily, to convicthim by his own hand-
writing df b'eing little better than an impostor, and one on whose
word no reliance is to be placed.
-In my former address I studiously avoided entering into any
detail which might admit even of a colourable contradiction.
.MT statement consisted of facts proved under ,Mr. O'Connell's
handwriting, with the exception only of the Mir paragraph, re-
lative to his application of the second £1000; this is the only
part of ray letter which he has ventured to contradict, and in so •
doing, he now asserts that in 'seven lines I have published no
less than six "distinct, direct, and wilful falsehoods." In his'
first place: he enumerated only five ; like Falstaff's slain, the
inventive genius of this " fatsificatot" increases the number
each time the tale is told—how he makes out the sixth I know
not, unless it be that he reckons his own assertion one.
That I may not even now do Mr. O'Connell any injustice, I
will here insert that paragraph and Ids reply to it.
My statement was, "That the second £lOOO had been ac-
counted for by his paying in cash £350 to Mr, Baker,- and after
repeated applications made for the balance, by giving him a bill
for it at a long date, drawn by M. O'Connell on the same
brewers as the £BOO before: alluded to was drawn on."

Mr. O'ConneYsaS;eitioiii;::fhatiti;Calse that the £lOOO
was accounted for in the way stated; that he never paid *:350,
or IL, to Mr. Baker; that Mr. Baker, nor any other person,
ever applied to him, of had any occasion to apply, to him, forthe
balance ; that he never gave Mr. Baker a bill for any sum upon
any brewer or brewers, or any bill at any date; that neither the
LW), nor any part of it, was paid to any person by a bill drawn
on any brewer, and that he never in his life drew a bill on any
brewer."

Y.
Now, gentlemen, it is possible that Mr. O'Connell may not
with his own hands have either paid to Mr. Baker £350 or de-
liVered to him a bill for the'balancei but this I know, that Mr.
O'Connell received from me £lOOO in cash ; :that he had refer-
red me to Mr, Baker as his agent, between whom and me he
would stand for all expenses. It is admitted that £350 was paid,
to-Mr. Baker by some person or other, and 1 naturally inferred
either by Mr. O'Connell or by his direction. Be that as it may,
I Was repeatedly told, and so was my solicitor, during the pro-.
ceedings befUre the committee, that several applications were
made to Mr O'Connell for the balance' that he at length did ac-
count for it, by giving a bill at a long date on the same firm on
whom the former bill was drawn (said to be brewers in Dublin);
• that that bill was handed over to Mr. Baker; that on remon-
strances being made against this mode of accounting for what
had been received in cash, it was stated that Mr. O'Connell
bad addo4 the interest and discount to the 'amount due, and
that, 'ailbe runner bin had been discounted, there would be no
difficulty in getting this also discounted, and that ultimately
Mr. Baker took the bill and agreed to consider it as cash.
Whether the whole of this be- "pure invention or wilful false-
hdod?" I neither know nor care. I originally stated it, and now
repeat on information given at the time by authority which nei-
ther myself nor my solicitor had any reasonto doubt or suspect,
and which, I believe, not even Mr. -O'Connell himself will yen-
tulle to impugn.
Whether, therefore, the representations now made by Mr.
O'Connell, or those communicated to me in August last,.be the
arrect ones I know not. They cannot both be true and they
are 'none of my fabrication.
Mr. O'Connell asserts, that he acted throughout the business
on behalf, and as the trustees of Mr. Vigors, and that I knew
it this I distinctly and positively deny; indeed,'so little did I
srpeet that such was the case, that at the meeting on the 4th
eth.august I told Mr. 0-Connell that so secret had kept every
thing Mr. that had passed between us, I had not even mentioned to
a'nls e word about the terms or nature of our engage-
ment,
gentleman, in confirmation of my statement I appealed to that
nell then observed, that 77" instantly stated it was true; and Mr. O'Con.
My conduct throughout had been highly
honourable. oat,
pected, much less known 15 it possible that I could have sus-
that Mr. O'Connell acted as the
" surety" and agent
3' for Mr. Vigors Such a circum-
stance was never stated to me, and. .
I never heard of it until I
read Mr. O'Connell's letter. Indeed, his correspondence with •
me proves throughout that such ‘owai:.l;ot the fact.
'There is another subject to
accuses
ought to advirt. Mr.
O'Connell in his last address ac
him into a mistaken opinion of enterstari" of " having. deluded
honest opinionsin
politics." I utterly deny that I anypractisiii,Tg divdeception upon
of pion that tool;
nim on this or on any other point : on ver
place during the short time I had the honourparlia-
ment voted with the government, and I would hsaevaetsiunpported
every useful measure of econmily, retrenchment, and refori'
which might have been brought forward. If Mr. OT„„ell
fancied that I would go beyond this, and vote for every measure
which he might think prover to propose, whether I approved of
ibor not, •he had indeed deluded himself iitto a mistaken opi-
nion of what would be my conduct; and he would have fouhd

that, on all such occasions, I should have acted as .heditme. the
really independent representative of the county of Carlow.
Gentlemen,. I am well aware that in. thus venturing to con-
tinue a controversy with Mr. O'Connell I labour under almost
insurmountable difficulties—that .I am no match for him in the
use, or rather abuse, of the English language, and that I subject
myself to all the venom and rancour which his malignity and
disappointinent• can give vent to. I console myself, however,
with the reflection that "Magna est veritat, et praivalebit," and
that I have done some service to the public by exposing the
doubledealing of this agitating mendicant.
I have now done with Mr. O'Connell. His conduct has com-
pelled me to make these transactions public, and I appeal with
confidence to the judgment of every honourable and impartial
mind whether I am not' ully justified in so doing;. and whether
his elegant epithets of "indescribable vagabond," "faithless
creature," and " mighty.great liar," instead of being referable
to me, may not with more-justice, propriety, and truth, be ap-
plied to a certain other individual? Ben Jonson certainly fore-
saw this man when he described one who—

" Gives forked counsel, takes provoking gold
On either hand, and puts it up.
Of so perplex'd a tongue,
And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
. Lie still without a fee.
I remain, Gentlemen, your most obedient and obliged servant,
ALEXANDER RAPHAEL:
Great Stanhope-street, Jan. 17. 1836.

TO SIR JOHN CAM BELL.

(From the Times.)

• .
Sir,—l have alway been of opinion, an opinion I imbibed
early in life from great authorities, that the Attorney and So-
licitor-General were not more the guardians of the honour and
the interests of the Crown than of honour and the interests of the
Bar. It appears to me that you have failed in your duty as repre-
sentative of this once illustrious body, and therefore it is that I
address to you this letter...
Although your opponent, I trnst . I am not incapable of
acknowledging and appreciating your abilities and acquire-
ments. They are sound, but they are not splendid You have
mastered consjderable legal reading, you are gifted with no ordi-
nary shrewickness, you have enjoyed great practice, and you
have gained gfeat experience, you possess undaunted perseve-
rance and invincible industry. But you can advance no claim
to the refined subtlety of an_ Eldon, and still less to the lumi-
nous precision, the quickperception, the varied knowledge and
accomplished eloquence of a Lyndlinrst. •_ln. profound learning
you cannot cope,for,a moment with Sir Edward Sugden ; as an
advocate, you can enduie no coropetition with your eminent
father-in-law, or with Sir William Follett, or, for I am not
writing as a partisan, with Mr. Sergeant Wilde. As a pleader,
I consider you unrivalled, though there are many who, even
in this humble province, have deemed that you might yield the
palm to Mr. Baron Parke and Mr. Justice Littledale.
But, whatever be your merits or defects, you are still the
King's Attorney-General, and as the King's Attorney-General
you have a prescriptive, if not a positive, right to claim any seat
upon the Judgement Bench whickbeccones vacant during your
official, tenure. , This prescriptive right has never been doubted
in the profession.: It has been understood and acted upon by
members of the bar of all parties, and at all times. In recent
'days, Sir Robert Gifford, though a common law lawyer, suc-
ceeded to the Equity Tribunal of Sir Thomas Plomer. It.is
true that Sir Robert Gifford, for a very short time previous to
his accession, had practised in the Court of Chancery, but, the
rightof the Attorney-General tosucceed under any circumstances
was again recognized by Lord Eldon, when Sir John Copley,
who had never been in an Equity Court in his life, became
Master of the Rolls. On this occasion it is well known that
Leach, the Vice-Chancellor, was anxious to succeed Lord .Gif-
ford, but his request was ,not for a moment listened to in prefer-
ence to the claim of the Attorney-General.

In allowing a•Judge, who, a very short time back, was your
inferior officer, to become Lord Chancellor of England, and in
permitting a barrister, who had not even filled the office of So-
licitor-General, to be elevated over your head, into the, seat of
the Master of the Rolls, either you must have, esteemed , your-
self absolutely incompetent to the discharge of those great of-
fices, or you must have been painfully conscious of your marked
inferiority to both the iiatliVidnals who were, proinoted in
.your
teeth; or last, and bitterest alternative, you must have claimed
your right, and been denied its enjoyment. In the first instance,
' you virtually declared that you were equally unfit for the office
you at present hold, and what should have been your consequent
conduct is obvious ; in the second, you betrayed the interests of
the bar; and in the third, you betrayed net only the interests of
' the bar, but its honour also.
Without imputing to Sir Sohn CaMphell any marvellous de-
gree of arrogance, I cannot bring myself to believe that he
holds himself absolutely Unfit for the discharge of the offices in
question : I will not even credit that he has yielded to his un-
feigned sense of, his marked inferiority, to the sliperriatural wis-
dolt and rniraculons acquirements of my. Lord Cottenham, or
tbal his 'downcast vision has been dazzled by the wide-extended
celebrity that surrounds with a halo the name of Bickersteth !
No, sir, we will not trench upon the manorial right of modesty,
Which is the monopoly of your colleague, Sir Mousey Rolfe, that
public man on the locus a non hecendo principle, that shadowy
entity which all 'have beard of, few seen—an individual, it would
itppear, of a rare humility and adinirable patience, and boru, as
it were, to exemPlify the beauty of resignation.
I believe, therefore, that you claimed the office—that you
claimed your right, and that you were refused it. That must
I have been a bitter moment, Sir John Campbell—a moment
which might. have made you recollect, perhaps even repeat, the
Johnsonian definition of a whig. You have not hitherto been
held a man deficient in spirit, or altogether uninfluenced by that
nobler ambition which spurs us on to great careers, and renders
the esteem of our fellow-countrymen not the least valuable 're-
ward of our exertions. When therefore you were thus insulted,
why did you not resent the insult? When your fair ambitiOn
Was thus scurvily-balked, why not have gratified it by proving
to a sympathizing nation that you Were at least worthy of the
high post to which you aspired? He who aim's to be the guardian
of the honour of the Crown should at least prove that he is
competent to protect his own. You ought:not to have quitted
the Minister's ante-chamber, the King's Attorney-General.
Why did you then ? Because,, as you inform us, your lady
is to be ennobled. Is it the carnival, that such jests pass cur-
rent? Is it part of the code of etiquette in this saturnalia of
whig manners, that the honour of.a man is to be vindicated by
a compliment to a woman ? One cannot refrain from admiring
too the consistent propriety of the whole arrangement. A gen-
tleman, whom his friends announce as a resolved republican,
and to whom, but. for this slight circumstance, they assert would
have been intrusted the custody of the great seal, is to be hoist-
ed up into the. House of Lords in the masquerade of a baron;
while yourself, whose delicate and gracious panegyric of the
peers of England is still echoing from the movement benches
of the House of Commons to the reeking cellars of the Cow-
gate, find the only consolation for your wounded honour •in
your son inscribing his name in the Libro D'oro of our heredi-
tarylegislators. Why, if Mr. O'Connell were but simultane-
ously called up by the title of Baron Rathcormac, in honour of
his victory, the batch would be, quite complete!
Whit compensation is it for the injured interests, and what
consolation to the outraged honour, of the barr that your amia-
ble lady is to become a peeress? On the contrary, you have
inflicted a fresh stigma on the body of which you are the chief.
You have shown to the world that the leading advocate of the
day, the King's Attorney-general, will accept a bribe! Nay!
start not. For the honour of human nature, for the honour of
your high -profession, of which lam the friend, I will believe
that in. he moment of overwhelming mortification you did not
thus estimate that glittering solace,, but such, believe me, the
English nation will ever esteem the coronet of Strath-Eden.
• Was the grisly spectre of Sir William Horne the blooming
Eve that tempted you to pluck, this fatal fruit?. Was it the con-
viction that a rebellious Attorney-General might be shelved
that daunted the hereditary courage of the Campbell? What,
could you condescend to be treated by the Minister like a fro-
ward child—the parental viscount shaking in one hand a rod,
and in the other waving a toy ?
I have long been of opinion, that among- other perfected and
projected, mischief, there has been on the part of the whigs
systematic attempt to corrupt the English bar. I shall avail
myself of another and early opportunity to discuss this impor-
tant subject. At present I will only observe, that whether they
do or do not obtain their result, your conduct has anticipated
the consequence of their machinations: the whigs may corrupt
the bar of England, but yon, Sir, have'degrisded it.
Jan. 19. RUNNYMEDE.

A BUMPER FOR EgGLAND.

(Par the Liverpool Slthidard.)

BY ROBERT STORY.

A bumper for ENGLAND—iiigh-crowned where she sits—
The fair Island Queen of the limitless sea!
On her brow is a shadow that hardly befits
The glance of her eye, which is fearless and free.
The•lion beside her—ye see him in wrath,
By the toss of his mane, by the curl of his paw;
Woe, woe to the wretch that shall stand in his path
When she rises to vindicate right and the law!
buMper for Scomarrn!—Sublime on her heaths
'She moves as she thinks on her battle-fields lone,
Where the heroes she bred gained the purest of wreaths—
The wreaths of a warrior that fights for the throne ;
She will not desert, when her aidence is lacked,
. Her protestant sister that calls on her now!
0 would she but rouse her!—the light of that act
Would banish the gloom from the Island Queen's brow!
A bumper for ERIN, the brave, bit mistaught,
Who, fooled by the falSest of and of creeds
That claim to be christian, is fitted for aught—
The fiercest, the darkest, the noblest of deeds!
Could she throw from her bosom the traitors that mar
• The peace of a land which their presence defiles,
Flow soon would prosperity's beautiful star
Arise and bring tight to the fairest of isles!