The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-10-10


In this weeks number of the London
Truth the editor, Mr.. Labouchere, pub
fishes an open letter addressed to Mr.. Ed
ward Levy Lawson, of the London Telegraph,
liberal extracts from which are given in
Dur cable dispatches on the third page
Of to-days HERALD. Had it been posi-
BILE for us to know beforehand that Mr..
Labouchere would address his assailant in
terms SO grossly libellous as he has used
we should not have permitted our London
correspondent to incur the expense of send
Ing US the whole letter by cable. But as
we have it in hand we have, by careful ex-
purgation, managed to make it fit for our
columns and to exclude the gross libels
with which the original abounds. 1t is our
rule not to publish any libel knowingly,
30 that the readers who delight in high
Favored bits of scandalous vituperation
md who are eager to ''know tho worst"
must wait for some days until the mails
have brought hither the copies of The Lon.
don Iieah.
Neither Mr.. Lawson nor Mr.. Labouchere
has. as the case appears to US, any good rea-
son to be pleased with their respective parts
in this difficulty, and we greatly regret to
zee two men of their merit in positions so
hopelessly false. Mr.. Lawson could plead,
doubtless, great provocation. He was
ragged for months by Mr.. Labouchere,
Just as that writer has nagged many others
In the columns of his paper and the man
who has been for months tbs target of that
pen dipped in venom might be regarded us
less responsible than the average man for
my vagaries with cane But the plea of
provocation does not go far; for if gentle
men or men of the world, be they Journal
lists anybody else, are to give way to
their irritation and resort to personal vio-
lence when aegrieved, they do greater harm
than any man does in merely publishing
libel they give their countenance to a false
standard, and assent to a determination of
difficulties by method which makes the
burliest rufiian the best man. Even the
athletic costermonger who was one of the
witnesses of the scene in King William
street was enabled for the moment to look
down upon the combatants from position
Of superiority. Somebody apprehended
that they would hurt themselves, and this
heavy weight said with contempt, "They
don't know how" He did, and in that
quarrel could have convinced them both.
It is lamentable when gentlemen put them
selves into position in which they are
looked down upon in that style. Mr.. Law
sons resort was neither to tho methods
proper to q man of peace nor to those OF
the so-called man of honor. He might have
appealed to the law fairly enough if averse
to fighting or, if ho felt too fierce for that,
to some recognized method of Illuminating
his ire but to be too peaceablo Tor gun
powder and too bellicose for tho law and SO
compromise on street brawl was to be too
nice in his distinctions.
Mr.. Labouchoro is, however, wrong in
some of his structures upon Mr.. Lawson.
He alleges that Mr.. Lawson first talked
fight and then, when the matter was in the
hands of "a friend" backed down. The
declarations OF Mr.. Montagu Williams.
the '.friend" of Mr.. Lawson. which
como to us in later despatch,
put the matter in very different
light. Mr. Williams who is barrister and
an ex-infantry officer, shoulders the respon-
sibility of advising Mr.. Lawson that he
should not fight. He might punch Mr..
Labouchere's head, but he should run no
deadly risks therefor. Mr. Williams theory
is that MIR. Lawson having beat Mr.. La
bouchero "like a dog" that is tho end of it !;
that, i'll tact, Mr.. Lawson orany one else who
feels like it may honorably select smaller
man and "beat him like dog" 1t leaves
Mr.. Labouchore, according to this curious
Montngu Williams "code," in which we
are told "a we'll known nobleman" and
"certain general" concur, no resource
but to get or hire bigger man to
beat Mr.. Lawson like dog But
we hear that Mr.. Labouch6re is to 80
armed-with "chip on his shoulder" as
it were and to walk around waiting Tor MIR.
Lawson, who has only to knock off the chip
to got an ounce of cold lead in his vitals.
Now, all this is in sobor steady old Eng
land, but 1t is the sort of thing which tho
scolding Saturday Reciep, with we'll icigu,d