The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-05-27 00:00:00

3R.,CAHILL

.Sta.,,-,'As an English clergyman and friend of Mr. Lowe, I
beg to state that I was present when Mr. Gardiner gave an ac-
count of his interview with you.

,
That -you did virtually send a reply to Mr. Lowe, no one
can for a moment doubt. True, it was not a written reply;
but every English Protestant would understand a verbal com-
plimentary message to be a reply.
Mr.!Lowe read to me his answer to your message, which I
advised him to print forthwith. The letter, in my opinion,
and in the opinion of many other English people, is a temper-
ate and courteous, but very decidedrstatement of his view of
yourproceedings. What is your rejoinder? You affirm that
.no reply was sent, but cannot deny that a message was sent.
You quarrel with him because he printed his second letter
before your intended reply could be. sent ; and yet two days
elapse, and no reply is ventured upon by you.
You assert that you " preached a doctrine the very opposite
of thatle (Mr. Lowe) has published in the Standard," but
refuse to let the world know what your real doctrines are.
And, lastly, you hold yourself at liberty to refuse any further
communication with Mr. Lowe.

I write this to assure you that you entirely mistake the En-
glish character, if you imagine for a moment that these rea-
sons for breaking off all further communications with Mr.
Lowe will satisfy us that you possess any other qualifications
as a controversialist than that very equivocal one, the discre-
tion which is,tbe better part of valour. Unless, indeed, your
second letter to Mr. Lowe, ending with the very Christian
similitude of the,hs ena, should convince us that in powers of
abuse you are not likely to be equalled.
Englishmen love-fair play; but there are other qualities in
an opponent which-they love as well—truth, courage, and the
deportment of a gentleman in one who claims to be a Christian
minister.

Englishmen hate•the hypocrisy which appeals to their can-
dour and so forth on English ground, but which finds no
epithet too vile for them in Dublin.*

Englishmen cannot understand why a preaeher should
placard his sermons, invite Protestants to attend, and then
refuse to substantiate his statements when called upon to do
so by a competent opponent. •
Rather, I should say, they. can understand this, more es-
pecially when one clergyman is abused for being in such haste
to print his letter, while another, the Rev. H. Carpenter, must
wait six days for a reply to a letter dated 13th instant.
Mr. Lowe has challenged you, and you abuse him, and call
him a hyena. Mr. Carpenter :has challenged you, and you
compliment him, but decline discussion. What do these
things mean?

Aik the first Englishman you meet, and he will tell you they
look very like shuffling and cowardice. If you can place your
conduct in any more favourable light, it greatly concerns your
credit to do so.—l am, sir, faithfully yours,

FREDERIC BARKER

St. Mary':, Edge-hill, May, 20, 1851

*The following extracts from a speech delivered by you in
Conciliation-hall, and reported in the Tablet, of April 26, may
give your English readers some idea of the.manner in which
it,pleases you to represent us to an Irish audience :

"The capital that rises from our green fields, and the gold
thatilows from our national revenue, feeds the English appe-
tite and fattens the cherished English artisan, while our poor
millions, are starving in naked destitution in their unroofed
hovels, or crawling through the putrid poorhouse to a coffin
less grave. (Sensation.) The dogs of the English kennels are
fed with sympathy and care: the wild game have a security,
and are protected by law ; the unlawful death of a fox is fol-
lowed by a penalty, and his lite is protected by the British
constitution. (Hear, hear.) But, alas! my beloved country,
the poor Irish Catholic, the child of God and man, is left to
faed upon briars and thorns—perishes of hunger by the way-
side—the
.coroner's inquest needs not record the case; the
handwriting-of England is traced in the protruding bones of
Ws. skeleton frame, and publishes in red capital letters—
'Starved to death by English law.' All, all, all, this thrilling
°cord of Ireland's deep, unfathomable woes, is, before God,

the crime of England's rule ; and the Lord of the universe,
who daily hears the heavy moan of oppression poured out froi-1
the broken hearts of the weeping widow and the starving or•
phan, will sooner or later take revenge upon the heartless
,nation which banishes the living from the homes of their
fathers, and shovelling the destitute poor into a shrondless and
coffinless grave, even forges chains for the dead."