The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-12-24 00:00:00

TO THE REVEREND ,W1LL1.4.11 SHEPHERD.

SIR,—You will perceive that I prefix to my letter the cleri-
cal title by which you are too well known to render any change
a matter of convenience ;—a title which the public have recog-
nised; and one, therefore, by which—whether in courtesy or
not is immaterial—you shall be designated on-this, as on every
other occasion of my addressing you.
You have the title of Reverend, and you are advanced in
years. For both those reasons, sir, you have claims to a cer-
tain amount of respect and indulgence. Into your . conduct in
private life I have neither the tight nor the inclination to in-
quire. It is to be hoped, for the sake of the clerical title which
You bear, that it is consistent with the clerical character. That,
however, is between God and your conscience. Neither wi'l I
apply to you abusive epithets. If others have done so, in re-
ference to your conduct, I should be the first to disapprove of
such a course; and if I weie to extend my remarks upon that
head at all, it would be to express au apprehension that those
who may have adopted the proceeding have been provoked to it
by your own example. With your public conduct, howeve,., I
have the same right to deal that is exercised by the world at
large, with reference to all men who put themselves prominently
forward. Had you been satisfied with the silent enjoyment of
that consummation of your hopes in political affairs, which ha,
recently been made the subject of no little boasting and self-
congratulation', I should have been must content to have per-
mitted you the uninterrupted possession of all the honours to
which your political consistency could possibly lead. The ex-
ertions which you have made for the accomplishment of that
state of public affairs from which all honest men apprehend
disastrous results, are of a nature to excite feelings of envy
amone:those only in whose breasts the truelove of their count-1y
and tine necessity for the maintenance of its character, have
ceased to be felt. Whether your individual exertions in that
cause, when justly estimated, might not place you in the posi-
tion of the fly on the coach-wheel, is a point which others, per-
haps, can better determine than myself. But, whatever those
exertions may have been, they had become matters of history;
and the author of them had, for some time, occupied a due po-
sition in society. With that state, sir, it seems you are not
content. dlence my present observations. Unlike yourself, 1
am a man who have figured but little in the arena of public
affairs. As, from my station in society, any such meddling would
fail to confer upon me an enviable distinction, so would the de-
ficiency in my education and powers preclude any marked in-
terference on my part from hem.,' productive of that effect which
I should desire to see attendant on my exertions, to whatever
object applied.
In this respect, sir, you will, at 01_ L
we differ. But, if I mix less in pul
access with yourself to the general orb -t and
to that fact you must attribute the prereiat letter. I have, then,
remarked in the public journals—and the Neircumstance, had it
proCeeded from any other quarter, would hate. caused me some
surprise—l have remarked, I say, that the state of quiescence
which, to men of a certain age, is generally desirable, if no in-
dispensable, is not coveted by
you. I perceive a strong incli-
nation on your part to emerge from that situation of consistent
privacy in which you have existed for some short period of
time. To my own view, even, as a decided political opponent
(for such I frankly avow myself), it would be matter of regret,
were it only on account of your family and friends, if your
determination again to obtrude yourself on public notice should
have arisen from that state of indecision, that absence of sound-
ness in judgment, to which all men, at an advanced period of
their lives, are more or less subject. Be that e • it may, your
name has recently been too much before the pub' • for the sus-
tenance of any previously acquired character for if such
existed.

You have addressed yourself through the columns of the
public prints—upon a subject and in a manner that would war-
rant any supposition which might arise out of the precedin4
sentence—to a most respectable gentlethan of this town ;--1
mean Mr. Thomas Foster, the Town-clerk. Let me here state,
to prevent all misconception, that as you now are, so was Mr.
Foster,—twenty-four hours before the commencement of the late
inquisitorial inquiry,—altogether unknown to me, even in per-
son. I saw, and listened to that gentleman,—in a place which
was destined for the administration of justice, but which, on the
occasion in question, was devoted to purposes more illegal and
more unconstitutional than any which have been practised in
this country since the 17th century—l listened, and bear will-
ing testimony to the extraordinary talent which he displayed,
and to the facility with which he demolished the fine-spun
sophistries and flimsy charges advanced by the opponents of the
Corporation. This is the moan, sir, whom you have thought it
politic to attack through the public press. The real motive is
too apparent not to be easily discovered. The immediate and
ostensible subject of the attack appears to me to be wholly un-
important. Still the distinct charge which was made has been
rebutted in the most direct and unequivocal manner, from a
quarter where the state of the case must, of necessity, be tho-
roughly known. Despite such disavowal, you have returned,
again and again, to the charge, in terms and manner alike in-
sulting to the gentleman addressed—entirely wanting in that
spirit of courtesy which is usually exercised by one gentleman
towards another—and manifesting either an extraordinary fa-
tuity of intellect, or that insulting indifference to the solemn
assurances of others, which is seldom displayed except where, to
the mind of the party exhibiting it, the disregard of truth is ha-
bitual. In one or other, if not both, of these situations have
you placed yourself by your proceeding. That Mr. Foster
should treat the insinuations thrown out by you in a manner
which it is needless for me to express, is perfectly natural, and
what you must have expected. I cannot give utterance to these
sentiments, and especially when addressed to a person in your
situation, without regret. They are extorted by your own pro-
ceedings—your voluntary and unprovoked attacks on others;
and it would be well, sir, for yourself, and for your past as well
as future reputation, that you take the advice of some judicious
friend, ere you again place your name, as an accuser, before
the world.

-----
I had written thus far when I undertook the perusal of
another of your epistles in a Liverpool paper of yesterday.
In pity to your family, sir, let me reiterate the advice which
concludes the last paragraph. Were I not disposed so to coun-
sel you, a note appended to your letter would suffice to induce,
on my part, the suspension of further observations. You state
that you are on the eve of quitting Liverpool for a short period.
You shall find in me a generous enemy. I will not fight you
behind your back. But I see no reason for withdrawing what
I have written; and will take measures for insuring you the
possession of a copy of it. Any reply which you may think it
proper to make will not fail to receive every proper consider-
ation from PUBLIUS.
Liverpool, 21st Dec., 1833.