Some party-manceuvering, of which Mr. Roebuck is the subject, has
been going on for a week or two. The object of it can only be guessed, but it looks like some electioneering trick. The Bath Chronicle lately put forward a report, which it affected to consider as unauthenticated, while it animadverted upon it as if true ; stating it thus- " Rumours have been prevalent since our last, to the effect that Mr. Roebuck is about to be appointed to an Indian Judgeship. It is believed, in well- informed quarters, that there is some foundation for this report ; but we have not ourselves become acquainted with any tangible evidence on the subject." The Times copied the rumour and the animadversion ; and Mr. Roe- buck writes to the Leading Journal a letter, which that paper, in pub- lishing it, calls "furious." The fury we do not perceive: the letter is a plain enough statement, with less than usual of Mr. Roebuck's bit- terness-less than his usual neatness ; but true and unpretending. He begins by describing the way in which the press puts such rumours in- to circulation- " The whole story is a falsehood-known to be such by those who, for a party purpose, first asserted it, (and who they are, I will immediately state,) as well as by those who industriously circulate a report which gratifies personal hate, because it may injure me. The fashion of the gentlemen of the pfess' is first to state any falsehood which they wish to circulate as a rumour, or by way of surmise. If the person against whom the shaft is directed leave the story unnoticed, then it is by these said gentlemen assumed to be true, be- cause it has never been denied.' If, however, the lie be seen by him interested, and he deem it worth answering, then it is thought an ample atonement if a paragraph appear, with some formula of this sort-' We are always ready to atone for any wrong which we may have unwittingly inflicted '; and then fel- lows a very dignified retractation of the falsehood.' The The present rumour is an instance. The Globe lately, in animad- verting on the appointment of Mr. Chapman to be Chief Judge at Port Nicholson in New Zealand, said or insinuated, that the appointment was a "job," carried by Lord Brougham, at the instance of Mr. Roe- buck ; and at the same time, the Whig journal remarked that an Indian Judgeship was reported to be vacant, and insinuated that Lord Brougham might get that also for some friend, perhaps for Mr. Roebuck. The Globe subsequently retracted all that it had said against Mr. Chapman's appointment, but neglected to apologize to that gentleman, or to retract the insinuation about the Indian Judgeship. It was therefore assumed to be well-grounded ; and, as Mr. Roebuck has heard from one of his constituents, reports are rife in Bath that the agents of a Whig candi- date have already begun a canvass in that city. This explains the mo- tives of the local paper, which has always been one of the independent Member's bitterest opponents.
The charge of tergiversation having been involved in the attack upon him, Mr. Roebuck declares that, although he has had cause to change some of his opinions, especially his estimation of individuals, he could still repeat the political creed that he avowed at Bath in 1832-
" The great leading doctrines which I then believed correct I still adhere to; and I sincerely believe that it is this very unchangeableness on tiny part, while so many have been whirling round to every point of the political compass, which is the cause of much of that rancorous hate with which I am regarded. If I had ever asked any Minister, whether Whig or Tory, for any place of profit for myself or any one connected with me, I think I may venture to say that r should not now be assailed by mere rumour ; or that if I had done any act, or uttered any word, which might be construed into a desertion of principle, vague charges would not satisfy those who accuse me of ' selling myself to the Tories: It may possibly save the expectants of a vacancy in the representation of Bath some trouble for me to state, emphatically, that I never, either from the present or any preceding Administration, solicited for myself any place ; and that no place, either in or out of England, will be sought by me, or accepted if offered, from or by those now in power."
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