MEMOIRS and CORRRSPONDEVCR of JAMES ACL AM D. Proprietor andEditor- Written by Himtelf. I LIKE HONR8TV. tN ALL PL JCES."— Judge Bayley. Printed and Published by JAMES U. LA N D fSoi. n I'PUP'HKTUK ATN EDITOH) at - lie RRISTOM'AN OFFICII, Kristollim Court, Bridewell'Lane. VOL. 1V- N0 XXVl. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, IS3J. [ Pwci Hof TO SAMUEL BENNETT, PRINTER, No. 43, Wakot Street, Bath. Sir, I hive received from » friend several of Y « ur Series of Letters—- now, as it anpears, in course of publication in the City of Kalh. l'hey are in s ts and price that of my Bristoiisn, and f am pleased to observe futther, that much of the theory of princi- ple therein advanced, is consistent with flie political matter, of which I have made my periodical, the medium of publication. With the professed object of vour seve. ral letters, theiefore, 1 should have bad no difficulty in according mv hearty concur- rence but that I have ground for believing that you are at itsje with Judge Baylev, • n the necessity of the great moral axiom which has been the rule of his life. His Lordship, as you may observe by a refer • nee to my ( landing motto, " likes honestv in all places"— and of coarse in all persons at all times. That such is not your rule of action I am justified in asserting— and that without such sine qua non of political— aye, and of personal claim to public appreciation, ad- vocacy and argument degenerate into mere literary quack- ry, no reasonable man wil| be disposed to question It may be well, before I proceed to subject of jour lucubrations, tlx*! t advert " to the exterior semblance which it has been deemed nece-. s « ry to assume. The Editoiial article* are signed with your name, as tho* e in the BrUutlia* b< ar mine. i have always thought such point a fair test of the intention* of the writer, for no man should be ashamrd of the production of his pen in a good c- tuse. and tbuse who write anrjonymously may reR- snnably be supposed the hired props of a bad cause, fir the mere vendors of the theoretical disquisitions of iheir braio. Hence it will be readily concluded that the open avowal o! your authorship must have commanded my approval ; but such conclusion would be most precipitate and unauthorised, for herein do 1 allege that you are the contemptible enverslut of that which must not be seen, lest its unprincipled dirt should disgust the pure in motive and correct in morals. You are not the author of that to which you have the impudence to attach your name. You are the skin of the calf in which some tig'r has thought fit to clothe himself— for deceptive and therefore evil purposes. Can there be a more degrading specimen of meanness than this your assumption of the literary merit of another ? Ye » ! That of consenting to screan a malevolent calumniator, for gra'ificatkt* of false pride, and the pecuniary advantaipa Khi^ h may r^ sitlt fr © » deception, Tha for, Tier failing may be on » of the many follirt wnich breed in the brainless hen!, like mag- gots in stale m* as— but the latter it demon, strativ* of an absence of integrity, and want i'f in- art. These < 1 evils are the pests bf poor human nature; they have » * iaed upon you as their victim, and I fear you will find it & ome » . what dlficuit to dislodge theis. How you could be such an idiot as ta suppose it possible that those who know you for an uneducated, if not ignorant mas,, could be deceived into the belief that you could writ* two consecutive sentences grammatically, 1 am at a loss to imagine— for the almost in* variable tesult of my enquiries on the question of your capability, has been conclusive— be » t yond occasion— evt- a affecting your competency to sign your name! And this from thos* who bave (• nown you for years— as a peddlia § printer, in the vety City where now yoa assume the merit of authorship, and arrogate the ability of judgment, and the right of de- precation— not, be it odserved, o » the number of sticks- full a composiiior can set it up m a day, or the speed and cleanliness of his dig* tribuiion— but on the talent of men of learning — and the worth of acquired rank aod prac- tical rsligioa I >-' 1 THE BRISTOLIAN 10* It is clear that you are the' despicable tool of another; ' but of whom ? This is an enquiry of somewhat greater difficulty than that of your literary qualification. Not that I affect ignorance of the fact of a person named Penny, being more or less mixed up in this conspiracy anonymously to vituperate worth and virtue— not that I am unaware he i9 at this moment entirely dependent on the success of this " stab, bing i' the dark" for his daily bread— nor that I* have yet to learn any thing on this point, or with reference to your connection with Penny or in reg pel of who Perinv is and all about him— these aie but minor considerations— for you and lie are mere puppets and the wires which move ye are in a master hand — a< sort of bottle imp or daemon of mischief. Who is he ? You will not tell me. Shall I guess ? Is it not the Reverend Thomas S Biddulph— the son of the Rector of Saint James's, in rhe Cily of Bristol? i nis., worttty h « d been educated for the L= uv ami was admitted — and practised as a la ye , in pa. nership with the respected Under Sheriff, Mr. Hare But the Church was deemed more pronris. ing— t'^ at is, raotf profiiable and he turned parson^ and' jumped into the pretty living • f Brockley, in Somersetshire, where he grafted the roguery of the law on the stem of the Church, and robbed and ruined a poor man of the name of Rains— whom he threw into Gaol and liberated only on the condition, that he would consent to the robbery on himself. This poor fellow ap- plied to me for advice and assistance, and I appealed to the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells for justice against the delinquent As to going to law, that was out of the question, ' for beggars cannot seek justice legally. " Therefore,." said the worthy BLihop, '' I will hear his complaint a claim equitably!" His Lordship', promptly de- termined on holding a sort of Clerical Cou- rt Martial, or rather a< Bed- of Justice — before which all parties were summoned together with the le.-. ding gentlemen of the Parish of Brockley. The trial of this most influential clergyman on the complaint of an unknown and ruined laborer, was carried on with the utmost impartiality. His Lord- ship allowed me to be of Counsel for the poor Plaintiff. The Defendant produced witnesses who were ready to swear any- thing, But justice w s triumphant — the Bishop ordered immediate testitution - the beggar was transformed into a freeholder — the lawyer parson was degradad before his Parish squiies and his own domestics and almost immediately ordered the Sale of his property at Brockley. You will please sir to understand, that the Bishop of whom I am writing, is the salf- same Bishop of Ba h and Wells whom it is the pleasure of vour Tig'- r, under cover of vour Calf- skin, to hold up to the inhabitants of the Diocese as a speci- men of all that is bad— as dishonest man — as a di'' grace to Christianity. 1 guess this Biddulph to be the author ol the letters printed and published by you— as yours. Am I riphi P But why should I ask you? He who would put in print one obvi- ous lie, knowing it to be a lie, and being wickedly bold enough to give such falsehood the attestation of his signature— would readily print fifiy lies, the faleshood of which he might sttpnose were difficult of proof. Sir— 1 will not be yo'tir tempter ; I ask you not ' o increase the depth of yonr damnation; 1 depiecaie yotir rashness-— nay, I will not be- lieve you, whatever your answer, and though you were tt> run from lying to blasphemy, and swear to the ' ruth of yotfr falsehood ! > An antionymous slanderer has no right to expect - the honor of a reply, and he slanders on with ihe knowledge that high minded men will so conciutle, and thai whilst he is there- fore as safe from exposure as his attacks are held to be beneath reputation— the million will buy and read, and believe. So you, and he whose tool you are, aflVct ( with peifect safety) to expect an answer to which you are aware you are not entitled, and tne absence of which you induce tht » crtdu- 1< u » to believe a justification of your allega-- tions, and a confirmation of iheir truth. I feel that you are no more entitled to the notice of the Bishop of Bath and Well*, than the burglar is authorised to expect an invito., tion to take his breakfast with the house- kee| er he has robbed in the supposed security of midnight darkness. It is for this reason I address you. I ask no permission — I require no information— I do so because 1 think that the benefactor should not be confounded with the malefactor, and be. cause J think lies should not be permitted he currency to which truth and truth only is emitted. That which I speak of the Bishop, 1 vouch for— and I » peW not all 1 know. It is unecessary. But do not suppose that this is the only instance of his love of justice with which I am, ' rom experience, acquainted. Tbete are oihers than this Biddulph who are the vengeful entires of ihe virtuous l) tocrsatlT who has di » c « rdfed them as unworthy » hep. herd* of his fold. But I' leave to others the tiffice of panegyrist— praise might now be suspected j let it be reserved for tbc monumental tablet— truth is the good man's noblest epitaph. Noihing can injure a good caul* so effectually as the absence of judg- ment in. its conduct, or the stupidity of it* advocates. The letters you have piinted, prof. $ » to shew the necessity of Churck Reform I claim at least as prominent « place among the advocates of purity in our Crunch Establishment, and among the de- nunciators of Clerical abuses, a* yourself^ In support of such claim, I relet, with well founded confident*, to the past volumes < tf ," The Bi'istoltan," and to the acts by whick^ for several years, my labours have been veri- fied. and I will aid, ( thanks to the j « M Bishop of Bdtli and wells! ) honored— if to be successful in good be houoiable, HS ( esteem it. When therefore I perceive the caitsc to which I have dtvoted much time, and iu ilit futb'iance if iibicb I ba; e experienced THE BRISTOLIAN 10* touch anxiety, espoused by such mm as' you If must be obvious to the most casual and your annonymous employer— ami when observer, that the writer of the tetters I witness the indiscriminate censure and viru" which bear your signature, is the per tence with which you al ack all who happen SOnal enemy of the Clerical dignatary pre to be Clergymen of the Church of England, siding over the Diocese, of Bath and merely because they are so— and when 1 ob- Welis. 1 stop not to enquire the motive serve the un'air, unpiincipled, and fata" accu- of hi » aciemonious hostility— but with some iaiions which you prefer against the Bish< p experience of the virtue and woith of the of Bath and Weils, solely on account of his Reverend Diocesan, I unhesitatingly declare being such diocesan, 1 leel imperatively called t), at t}, ere is not a Bishop of the Established upon to pro est against the mischievous ten- Chur; h more active, more conscientious, or oency of your proceedings, and to d ciare more rigid in the discharge of his multi that advocate as 1 am of ' ha! Reform in fareous duties from the Clergy of his Church, as well as in S ate, which is M> Oioce< e than the Re verend Lord, whom it necessary, I vivw such pretenders as either. | your p'easure to have selected, attacked, as hypocritical dispuiers. Coveting the Church and calumniated once National bigh- mindedness as to gi< heir credence to statements carrying falsr- hood in their very front— advanced und) y - tmrther's name, and promulgated by on* * ho in liis interested patronage of falsehood, ias forfeited all pretension to public estima- tion or personal respect. JAMES ACLAND. prup- rty, or as men wnhout the sembUfiC^ of religion or of honesty. Fhertf * re is it i- haf 1 enter the lists of con- troversy with— he author of your letters— not It is plainly to be perceived, that the ; as con ending for th » immaculacy of writer of the letters which bear your sig- nature, is an enem to the Church Esta blishment — coveting such enmity by the fl. msy pretext of a virtuous hostility to certain stated abuses in the administration of the duties and in the detail of the Go- vernment of that Est blisiiment. I am not an enemy « » f the Church of England— esteeming it capable of the greatest practical pei fectibility. I am an ardent admirer of the Church of England as con- tradistinguished from the thousand and one Sectarian excrescences which are all of them of the geutss liyroCRtsv, and which damn- able sin is as utterly at variance with the principles of religion, and most of all with those of Christianity as are the elements of fire and'water. Whatever the theory of the Church Establishment, its practice hat a mutfh greater proportion of the rea- son, bleness of religion than that of any dissident faction by which it is opposed. bu: defending a deserving dignamry of the Church of England In. in the pie net ic and dastardly attacks of one who advocates, spoliation, aqd would justify his injustice by gross falsehood mid purposed misrepreseh, lation. 1 know not any individual who is more likely to have excited personal enmity than the Bishop o( Bath and Wells. He has ever refused to tolerate injustice and inca- p « city in the unworthy few who have disgraced his Diocese by their flagrant mis conduct; ar. d it were by no means difficult to find among the diacarded priesthood by whose expulsion his Lordship sought the purification of the Church within his rule, individuals base enough to write such Ietteers as you have thought fit to publish. That some such evil spirit has exercised' his in fluence ouer you I am justified in believing — for who so likely to " slab i'the dark"? Who so likely to buy concealment with the PEOPLE TO THK OF BRISTOL Aw » lte! ariie,. Or be for ever fnllm," AS therefore \ ou seek the destruction of profit of injustice? • this Chutch, which 1 aver to be your real | But the speculation < jill not, ought not object, ( although ! perceive you lack the to succersd. This un- English, this Italian bold honesty which should prompt your method of, destroying character will defeat avowal of such motive) — I appear in the your claim OH the confidence of the public; field against you— not as the Champion of for 1 will not for noe moment suppose my 4 abuse— but as ihe enemy of Hypocrisy. country mea so u!. « « Jy degraded from ibeir Bristoiians! An attempt is about to be marie by yen* Very wort/ iip/ ul Corporators, to introduce inr « Bristol, that innovation upon ihe rights arte' liberties of Englishmen—; t Military Police— and which is to be paid for, not by this band of upstarts, but by that already over- axed and oppressed class, the hou » ekeeperh- It is true that you have, fur Centuries, been ihe victims of every species of oppression and misrule. You have se en yourselm fixed to the uttermost, whilst you hav* bad barely sufficient left yon of your hard earn, ings to preserve yourselves and families from starvation. You have endured misery and privations of every kind, and yet your op- pressors, nat content with ths, would seek to plunge y(> u still further into this abyw> of misery— it is under these circumstances that I would direct your attention to tk* motto at the head of this letter. I will now proceed to show you Hike ob- jections to the formation of this bodv « » - objections which are unanswerable, except by the underhanded chicanery which is m present observed by those who are attemp- ting to tstablish this unconstitutional forte. First — It is unconstitutional. It is laid down hy Blickstone, H » f » , ST; D seveial ctheu of THE IUUTK/ E 10* law era that ever lived in England, that Ihe establ^ hment of a Sanding Army is contrary to the Uws of the land, and there (<> re an infringement upon ihe rights ami ufety of I5i ton>: fur if those laws, ( T h Ipiril of them) which are intended lor ih mutual benefit and protection of all lie in. vaded, what safuy can there be for any person who is under the i' fluence of those Jaws? or what guarantee can be afforded him that that power which ha> i invadwi his rightst may not at a fu: ure period, i » ntirely annul! and des roy every remainrng vestige of his l; b riies and blessings, to which he has an inalienable right? But it may be argued, the. Police ( Ought to be established, it not at all similar to a standing armv ; — I answer, that the Police being sepaiated fr. m the people, hav ng like a soldier, no com munity of feeling towards those whom in truth, he is intended to overage, being; answerable to no one except his officers, and it being intended in Biistol to appoint pensioners to be Policemen I would ask whether any body of men can be formed coming so nearly the resem- blance of a standing army 44 this will But it may again be urged that we ha e a- standing army at present existing, and therefore there can be no harm to the creation of this body as an auxiliary. I answer, if we have endured a standing army as a public body, it does not there- fore follow, that we are to submit to a system of local domination and aibi trary tyranny, which will be carried home to the house of every man in this City, And whichever way 1 turn the subject I am led to but one conclusion — that the establishment of this body is sought for but as the preliminary steps of some • Measure, which has for its aim the total destruction of every right and liberty wfaich, as Englishmen, we at present en- joy. Having entered lather largely upon Ike fir< t objection, I must defer my other THE DIMS TOMAN remarks until next Wednesday— but earn- Silly imploring every Bristolian, who has one spa k of patriotism in his bosom to come forwaad boldlv and resist this at- tempt at his fuither enslavement — let theie meetiugs immediately be called in every Parish and declarations drawn up strongly expressing the sentiments of the housekeepers on this all important sub- ject— but whatever is done, must be done quickly- Adieu until Wednesday, HAMPDEN. TO THI EDITOR OF THE BRISTOL! AN. Sir, In your paper of Saturday, the 8th ins'ant, you inserted my tiotice to Mr Daniel Baynton, Assignee of John Drew, Builder, respecting his aflairi; since ( hat having called on my Attorney on the bu< iness, and we called upon Mr. Bavn. ton, under m Attorney's advice, to ask for a sight of the Papers, which Mr Bavntoti readilv produced, and they ap peared much to my satisfaction. I was convinced Mr. Baynton had been greatly deceived by false statements from othersf and am now satisfied he actcd honorably and correctly in this business. I cannot but express my regret, that I should un- intentionally hurt his feelings by that notice being printed, and that I did not call upon him before 1 wrote it. 1 remain Sir, Your'i respectfully, JOHN W. WA1KINS. Bristol, Jan, 13, 1831, A PEEP AT THE HOUSE OF L tRDS Continued from our last. Boston., B. ( Irby.) Lord Bedchamber, . - < • ;> - ' • ' » ' • 1,000/. A son in navy, captain, 700i. Another - son. a captain of life guards and lieutenant colonel army, 1,001)/. Another son. two livings in the church, 1.000/ « A page to the king, 360/. The present lord's mother was a selwyn. See Sydney <£ 3,960. Bradford, E. ( Britlgeman.) Colonel Shrop- shire militia, 1,000/. A son, commissioner in navy, 5' JC/. Another son, captain iti army and lieutenant grenadier guards, SOW. Brother, two church livings, 1,000/, Bray brook, B. ( Neville.) A lord lie « - enatil; hereditary visitor of a college at Cambridge, with great patroaage ; proves* marshal in Jamaica, 5 960/. A son master « of Maudlin College, with great income, with a great church living worth 4,000/; I his peer is brother in'law to Lord Cren. ville, whom see .£ 9,960. Breadalbane, E. ( Campbell.,) A liaute, nant general in the army, • councillor of stute in North Britain; 1,500/. Married • cousin of the earl of Lauderdale, whom see.—.£ 1,500, T » ht Continued. PiinteJ ami Published bv JAMES ACLAND, ( Sots PBopHirron AND EDITOR) at the KRISTOMAI* Owca, Anatolian Court, Bridewell Laue.