The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-02-15 00:00:00

TO LOUNAELLOR PHILLIPS.

" SlR—i shall make no apology for giving a public
answer to a public speech. Yoe have seceded r the
Committee appointed to examine General It'Fveren%'s
conduct, anti hare published your reasons for so doing.
You declare the I 'onamittee to have been interrupted in
its proceedings, bearded, and almost instil:ell, by the
"judicious" friends of the General. I may safely tritst
the gentlemen thus charged with the justification of
their own conduct—but, 1 ask you, Sir, who r plain
of the interruption, if it was the calm and imprpOng
course justicealhe fair investigation of truth, sod not
the torrent of personal invective, and gross partiality,
which the friends of tit.. General felt called upon to re-
sist? Are you certain the labours of the Committee
were distnrhed by the /Heads of the General only ? We
are the minori,y, and have we a voice so potent against
the multitude? We are the selftwers in public estitna-
Lion, and, therefore, are we most likely to 'title investi-
gation ?—1 concede, however, that int, rruptiou, in any
shape, or from any quarter, may he good reason for a
Court to suspend its functions; hut I worthd know by
what logic it is, therfure, justißell in passing sentence
on the accused? You say you have been interrupted in
the course of investigation by the General's fn, ads. It
was not, surely, his defence which they interrupted;
and if not, it is the arrnaation only which von have
heard—yet you pronounce judgment upon this ex parte
statement. What would you have said, Sir, if, during
roar legal practice, an instance had occurred of a Jndge
or a Jury proceeding, upon some casual interruption of
their proceedings, nut to suspend the business of the
Court, Intl to pose sentence on the prisoner? Would
you have called each conduct justice? Would yon have
deemed it friesetlebipt But you disdain ' the rigid
technicalities of the law,' and, with a felicitous flaring
suited to your character, soar above all ordinary rules
of evidence, for the purpose of crushing, unheard, the
man you ' desire and expect to come pure as driven
snow from the ordeal.' From an ordeal, so fashioned,
angels only could pass with impunity. If view Wald-
nes, imposes no gentler on your friends, from what
Holy Inquisition will you borrow a mode of trial for
your enemies?
'4 Permit me next to examine the grounds upon
which you have built a judgment you promise yoersrlf
Will pion so satisfactory to the public. ' Yon will be
guided in your decision by Me true belief of Colonel
*Yowl, who tells you ea AI, honour, that -his rouschmre
4/orioles, °reveal 'reverse% had no authority to art
he id.' That is, C4)I. Young Warm titer General
138E1%0-owe was not authorised, and Mr. Phill'ps hetieres

PRICE 7D.

that Col. Young believes. So iln I ; hut I think this i
the first time that a second havd befity; a belief in an
they mats's belief was deemed sufficient evidence of a
fart, or %efficient ground of condemnation. You do well
Sir, with .itch reasoning principles, to abjure the '
technicalities of the law.' Who would have the stthdin....
wanderings ..f his imagination fettered by a dry santinv
of facts, or a whole host of apostrophes, withered int
n msense by the talisman of simple evidence? I am.
doubtfnl, however, if your legal brethren will he much
flattered by your representing these ' technicalities' as a
'denial of jostire; and I trust it will be long before th •
r fair law of evidence is ilisrartied front our Cones of Jus-
tice. to make room for any species of belief, however.
' deeply seated, or emphatically pronounced. Relief, Sir,
Ism of late constituted a favourite portion of your moral
theory. and I pray that the zeal with which yen now
cherish it may not portend some fearful and speedy
lapse, into the gnlph of scepticism. But are you igno.•
rant how frequently the most stubboru principles of' bet
lief have beets associated with a most pitifel narrowness/
of niulerstanding, and a total abandonment of every sent
tiinent of humanity? Ile it, however, as you think fit
even to the credo ?mitt impositite ; hut surely as long a
yon are yourself ' i'tlie vein' it is a little hard yo
should not allow its to mete with your own measure.
You complain of attempts to degrade the ' dead tie•
',era! English' by • bare unauthenticated assertion.'
Why, wha• is too r assertion, Sir, but the expression t:
a man's inbred! conviction and belief as to the point i
question. Shall that principle which permits you t.
condemn unheard a livingfrienel, he insufficient to jais
life our acrusation of a dead enemy ? For pity's sak
let English rest ; he will never answer your purpose t..
i;gitre in apostrophiral pathos with Cortes and Monte-
viola. Provoke no dismission of his character. Yon
era' a most unbieky advocate for your friends, both ilea.
and living. You lay a great stress upon this man's do
nial of lieneral D'Evereux, as if the denial of all audio
rity but his own were not the essential part of his de
sign, which was to make the most of the erase withoo
regard to the Uoveninient he professed to serve, or t
individuals whose claims might stand in opposition t
his views. That he disclaimed all knottledge of tiearra
Dl:veva' was in harmony with his character and in
tentions. Ida I they ever suet they must speedily have
recoiled front each other's acquaintance. Why, thee
yon ask. address a dispatch to him ? Really, Air, thi•
lineation implies such gross ignorance of the ordinary
I course of military business that, weie it not repeated
the course of your speech, with most trinmphant energy
I shrill lave taken it for the printer's error. F,ngli
was serving, according to public reports, in the stun
cense with lietieral D'Evereut, anti in the same part u
the country to which the legion was destined. rode
such circumstances, a complimentary cuttensunicatio
hreame a matter of course, without reference either t
character or previons acquaintance. That it was and '
csinplimentary, the very fart rou state of the new.
papers is sufficient evidence. for admit the fact it
Arisinentli's seizure, and yet pretend to_think that n,
altei

_.. :ration timely-plum. iwemisettnewer —kr monerlffilmil
anthorities of Margiritta. tan yoo imagine that, attet''
English had ventured to commit such an outrage on
the p.m.'s of & 41•11 R whose alutraetec has.ainea mates:,
him in the Fire-President's chair of Venezuela, be ler*
either Pon Comer, or any other Don, in a situation to
oppose his designs: But all the constituted authorities
were not reamed. True—not all the constables ; it
suiliceil tha: the residue were linable or unwilling to Pe-
silt the adventurer's usurpation.
" I hare gone through whatever you have thought fi:
to present . t the public in the shale, of argnment. You:
fielitygs, since you have chosen to unfold them to the
general eye, next claim attention. You boast of thee,
sing-evils—because you have received from the 6ettera
neither rank nor pay.' But, let ns be just, Mr. Phil
lips. Ito you reckon at nothing the opportunity h.
afforded yen of showeriog on his expedition the flowers ,
of your rhetoric? Though artificial, lien. D'Evereux
has found thesis neither cheap nor lasting. But, how
stands your conscience towards the public with respect
to your conduct on that occasion ? What steps did /few
take to avoid fostering the delusion of your coantrymen:
IVhat inquiries did yea institute as to the Deneral%
character MIA authorities tee you fired the youth of
Ireland to unite under his banner? If yen inquired
and were snaffled, it would be fair to gratify the public
with the grounds of your satisfaction. If the strength
of visor fe•lings hurried you before your judgment, it is,
p' fable t seir strength sl hi have proved so little
c mimensurate with their durability. You are the Gene-
rars friend, awl, in the hour of his necessity, you ex-
.d of Heaven'. why is he absent.?' I have
laid up no recent stuck of piety which may embolden
me to question in a natter so awful; but, in the natne
justice, dear and intelligible to all roes--in the narueot
friendship, so often betrayed, I ask, in what barbarian
country, iu uhich judges are found to seutence the on
beard Atol absent, is the office of judge filled by afrietee
of the accused? Had you troubled yourself to impair,
of the Deneral's friends the reasons ut his absence, they
would have informed you, that he has beets confined Is)
severe indisposition, and that he is now on his way it,
tabs country, not as your friendship kindly expresses it
' to arrive about the time of the Circuit,' but within
very few day ".—They would have added, that the cans.
so aceried its 'Waits in London is regarded as triunt
phew ; that the Deputies of the Venezuelan lioverntnen,
here, in the name of the Congress admitted the an-
thotity which General D'Everenx first derived from the
supretne l hief; that they have endorsed Isis hills, and
allowed his c )))))) missions. They would have informed
you that much of the delay complained of has arisen
from the lieneral.s confideuce in his own innocence, anc
his unwillingness to sacrifice the ultimate interests of tin
came, to personal considerations. They would have
added, that this confidence was strengthened by the re-'
fiance he felt on the zeal and faithfulness of his friend.
in Dublin. You, Sir, when be arrives, mar loam es
prove to him, how well his reliance may be Judie&
" I am, Sir,
" Your very obedient servant,

• " FILANCIS HALL.