Sir Francis Burdett's letter to the members of Brookes's has
pro- duced the following note in reply from O'Connell. It is caustic and nervous, though jocular and pleasant, and will not tend to diminish the uneasiness which Sir Francis already endures as the consequence of his folly.
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.
" Haulm:Inc Abbey, nth November 1833. 'An ounce of civet, good zipothecary I' " BETAIVF.1) FELLOW•COVNTRY MEN—You pe.recive how I am assailed. There never yet was any mode of attack which has tied been practised upon me. I receive all ea the wages of my devotion to every principle of civil and religious liberty, but, above alt, of the tie:abated enthusiasm with which I cherish the rights and abhor the o ron,,,rs our loved and abused land—
For 'tis treason to love her, and death to defend
" No matter : I can bear ten times as much; and, as the grimiest suffering car bear, I can cheerfully bear the puling and sickly- affectation of those who foster the most atrocious of my slanderers, and yet are ready to faint with gentility and die elf ' aromatic pain,' because in a strife, not of words but of things,! du call thins by their right but ugly names. "Of this more another day. For the present I write merely to assure you, that I will Lel it my duly to appeal by letter, and also personally, to the constituents of ' what was' Sir Frauds Berdett, on the subject of the unprovoked and preposterous attack made upon me in the Times in the name of that Baronet. I a ill make that appeal in about a fortnight. —unless I shall have ascertained in the interval that the unhappy gentleman his been placed by his *leads under personal restraint. It is. indeed, maul- lest that he is likely to do himself—poor man—a mischief, makes he be well looked after. If he however, continue at large, it will be my melancholy duty to call the attention of the Electors of Westminster to his conduct, and to that of his proteges—of those whom he has sagaciously grouped under his fantastic protection. " In the mean time, I will look out for 'a commodity of good words.' Every thing that falls from my pen shall be redolent of the civet. I will carry on the political war. fare with eau de rose, lie who tells base Ike shall in future be merely a falsineator ;' he who betrays his principles, his party, and his country, shall be • a foolish and fading gentleman;' and he who, with only one virtue and a thousand faults, abandons that virtu. but corrects none of his faults, shall be-1 do not at present know exactly what —but I will discover some perfumed wont so sot as nut to shake the shattered nerves of the most unsound, personally as Sell as morally, of the antiquated roues of St. James's.
"For myself, these assaults serve only to rouse me to renewed, to redoubled, efforts. There is much to be done to carry into practical effect the principles which the Burdett of a former day professed. More remains to be done to give Ireland a chance of permanent good government. The present Ministry. virulently assailed by powerful enemies, and insidiously, and tharefore most basely, betrayed by pretended friends, threw one moment of blessed light and salutary heat upon the gloom of our unfortu- nate country ; but it may be like the ligtoing's glare, transitory. and only making the returning darkness more hideous. Let us, then, detect and despise those who aid the common enemy at such an awful moment.
" You know. kllow.counto men, that I am, and will be, while there is life in this heart, Your everzeadous, devoted, and faithful servant.
" BANIEL O'CONNELL:*
[If O'Connell fulfil his promise, and in the manner promised, be will not only add to the sources of general entertainment by producing a composition which hardly another pen could indite so well, but also perform an important public service, by removing the prestige which still lurks among old Westminster Reformers in favour of a man who has outlived his usefulness and now exists, politically, only to work mischief and betray those who confide in him.]
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