At a dinner given at Peterborough, the other day, on
the occasion of Lord Milton's coming of age, one of the party mentioned, as an illus- tration of the munificence of Earl Firzwilliam, that his Lordship al- lowed the late Mr. Wilberforce 42000/. a year, to avert the distress oc- casioned by the misconduct of a near relative. This statement Iwo- duced a letter from Mr. Stephen, the Under Colonial Secretary, to the effect that Mr. Wilberforce never was in distress ; that be derived a sufficient income from his own property to the day of his death; that be never received a shilling from Lord Fitzwilliam, or any body else, in the way of pecuniary assistance; and that the " misconduct " alluded to was simply a foolish speculation, which he approved of and was a party to—a proof of his " unacquaintance with the common bu- ainess of life."
A foolish and ex facie incredible story has been going the round of the Tory newspapers in England and Ireland, respecting a Manchester
s subscription of 10001. to the O'Connell fund. The story ran, that this sum was promised to Mr. O'Connell as a reward for his vote in favour of the second reading of Mr. Poulett Thomson's Factory Bill,
t by Mr. Potter, M. P. for Wigan. The story first appeared, we be- lieve, in the London Mercury, conducted by Mr. John Bell, formerly of st the True Sun ; and, let us take the opportunity of saying, in spite of • this error in judgment, the ablest and most respectable of the new aweekly papers, so far as our acquaintance with them extends. Mr. .Bell being pressed for his authority, (which he had all along declared his willingness to give,) stated that he had beard the report at a public dinner in Yorkshire, from Mr. Richard Oastler, a person well known in the North for the intense sympathy for foamy children which he professes. Mr. Oastler pretended to have heard it from Mr. Condy, the editor of a Manchester paper, who (said Oastler) had it from Mr.
Co-telloe, Mr. O'Connell's agent. Well—Mr. O'Connell has re- quired Mr. Condy to contradict Oastler ; which he has done ex- plicitly enough to a friend of Mr. Costelloe, who went to Manchester to procure the denial ; and in a letter to Mr. O'Connell. There the matter may as well rest. The whole affair is scarcely worth the space occupied by this paragraph.
In one of Mortimer O'Sullivan's recent speeches in Scotland, be charged Mr. O'Connell with having declared "that it is essential to the Catholic faith to believe it right to murder, or to break faith with heretics." Mr. O'Connell has, rather unnecessarily as it appears to us, written a letter to the Scotsman, in which O'Sullivan's speech with the above passage was given, calling upon the parson to say when and where he uttered the sentiments imputed to him. No reply to this de- mand has yet appeared.
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