The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1880-09-11 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

SEACOMBE INSTITUTE A CLIA.LLENGE.  TO THE EDITOR OF THE BIRKENHEAD NEWS. Sin,—Although I am a subscriber of the above institute, I should not have ventured to take part in the correspondence which has appeared in your columns had it not been for the two letters signed "A Member," but, inasmuch as those letters contain reflections upon a gentleman, who is not only an active and respected member of the institate, but who has been known to me personally for many years, I cannot allow them to pass without a plain protest. Although "A Member" has not ventured to give the name of the gentleman referred to any more than he has ventured to give his own name, yet he has so worded his correspondence that there is room for doubt in the matter. There can be no doubt whatever that his remarks are insidiously pointed at that venerable gentleman known as one of the most active vice-presidents of the institute, and whose services have already been acknowledged in no ungenerous spirit by our secretary's letter, which has appeared in your journal. Now, sir, I am fully conscious of the value of a correspondence column such as that which you throw open so unreservedly to your readers, and it is a matter for painful regret when we find its privileges corrupted and its use perverted to a mischievous purpose. It is permitted that a correspondent may, if he deems it convenient, write under a nom de plume, and, probably, were it not for this convenience the occasion would not have arisen on which to protest against correspondence of the character contributed by "A Member." In attacking the purely public acts of public men it is perhaps advisable, under circumstances, to write under an adopted signature which shall give it to be understood that the writer is expressing the views of a section of society or of a political party, and, so far, there is nothing reprehensible in the disguise' but when the attack is a personal one directed at the private character of the individual, a disguise ceases to be admissible, and it is then only adopted by the contemptible coward so that he may pursue his purposes without discovery. What he fears to do openly he does with effrontery under the protecting shelter of his nom de plume. I would remind " A Member" of what a writer whose name is immortalised has said. If it tends to deepen his sense of shame, although I fear that would be giving him credit for a finer sensibility than he possesses—the quotation will have done him some service. The writer says—" There are few actions more base than the writing of an anonymous letter. It is a moral assassination committed by a masked murderer, a lie without an author, the meanspirited act of the despicable coward." He concludes—" I would as soon trust my purse with a thief as hold communion of friendship or interest with the despicable writer of an anonymous letter." " A Member" introduces his letter of the 21st ult, as follows :—As Mr. G. F. Kelly, the secretary of the above institute, has induced several friends and myself to become members under the plea that it was intended for the benefit of the working men, will he kindly explain, Sm., &c." On the very face of it this was a very poor excuse for the writing of what has followed, but what at first appears poor becomes absolutely contemptible when the painful suspicion forces itself upon us, especially on the appearance of the later epistle, that he is.not a bona fide working man at all. He writes with an ill-fitting disdain of the venerable gentleman's two years' residence amongt us in Seacombe, but let me tell him that he is ludicrously mistaken if he supposes that that gentleman's useful public life dates only from the commencement of that period. If he was not the actual founder, he was, at least, the most active and able member of one of the most popular institutions in London, and since then I hays been brought into personal contact with him in equally disinterested work in connection with societies of various kinds in the Midlands. If" A Member" were to see the goodly collection that might be made of public resolutions of thanks and testimonials to the " venerable," he would be constrained, with all his impertinent self-importance, to hide his diminished head for ever.  were