Part 8 (1/2)
”To the Editor of the _Sun_
”30, Parkfield Street, Islington
”February 16th, 1853
”Sir,--I regret that I aer to you, but I have a confidence that your sense of 'fair play' will influence you to insert the acco letter in your journal of to-morrow I need hardly add that the facts which it states have been drawn froh respect, sir,
”I am, etc,
”Mayne Reid”
”To the Editor of _The Times_
”Sir,--In your journal of the 10th inst appears a telegraphic dispatch announcing an insurrection in Milan; and underneath, in the same column, a document which you state 'purports to be froentleman
”Now, sir, M Kossuth either did write that document, or he did not If he did, and you have published it without his authorisation, you have committed, by all the laws of honour in this land, a dishonourable act
If he did not write it, you have committed, by the laws of justice in this land, a crie you with the couilty of the latter; and the latter, like a parenthesis, embraces the former
”You have published that document without any authorisation from the , in an additional article, you have declared its authenticity, as a proclamation addressed by M Kossuth, froarian patriots in the late insurrection at Milan
”As such, sir, in the name of M Kossuth, _I disavow the docuery_
”It re you before the bar of the law It has becon you before the tribunal of public opinion
”I charge you, then, with having given utterance to a forged docu influence upon the fame of its reputed author Such conduct is in any case culpable In yours it is inexcusable, since you daily tell us that 'whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer'
”But this is not all, sir In the editorial referred to, you take occasion to speak of the eful invective, whose epithets I, as a gentle the false proclaed M
Kossuth with aiding to incite the late insurrection in Milan, and thereby causing the wanton shedding of blood--of 'hallooing on the wretched victims to certain destruction, while he hiuardianshi+p of British law'
”This is a serious charge, and, if not true, a slander which, by the mildest construction, must be termed most cruel and atrocious _It is not true_ It is a slander, and I feel confident that all who read will pronounce it, as I have done, cruel and atrocious
”With regard to its first clause, I here affir the Italians to a revolution at this time; but, that up to the latest ed and prehty reasons for so doing Perhaps you, sir, hty reasons' are; but whether you do or not, I a to declare them for the benefit of Austrian ears This is not the question now, but your charge is; to which I oppose the affirard to the latter clause of your quoted assertion, I have thus to answer; that the moment in which M Kossuth received the news of the insurrection in Milan--and which caland--upon that moment he hurried to make preparation for his departure to the scene of action Although filled with a prophetic apprehension that the affair would turn out to be an _emeute_, and not a national revolution, he, nevertheless, resolved to fling his body into the struggle I, as to have had the honour of sharing his dangers, can bear testi to face them, when he was frustrated by the news that the insurrection was crushed
Were I to detail, as I may one day be called upon to do, the sacrifices which he made to effect that object, the slanders, sir, which you have uttered against him would recoil still more bitterly upon yourself For the present I content myself with the assertion of the fact; but should you render it necessary I am ready with the proofs
”But no such explanation was needed to shi+eld Louis Kossuth from your unmanly accusation Shall I recall a circumstance in the life of that heroic man to refute you? You, sir, must knoell It has been recorded in the coluust, 1849, upon the banks of the Danube stood Louis Kossuth On one side was the avenging Austrian, thirsting for his blood; on the other his weak and wavering protector, who had declared that unless he-- Kossuth--and his associates would consent to abandon the religion of their fathers they must be yielded up, to what? On the part of Kossuth, to death--certain death--upon the ignominious scaffold In this perilous crisis, others, less compromised, accepted life upon the terms proposed What did Kossuth, when it calory: 'Death, death upon the scaffold, in preference to such terue that could e, at such a time, there is no 'bombastic fustian' I could believe that there were e, the heroic virtue of such an act; but I did not believe there existed a land ould have the effrontery--the positive and palpable e of cowardice
”Such, sir, are the facts connected with this affair I may at some future time treat you to a few opinions, and review more copiously the history of your conduct in relation to M Kossuth Meanwhile, I leave you to purify your soiled escutcheon as you best may