|
TO MR. HODGSON'S SUBSCRIBER.
SIR, - Giving the words of a celebrated [wit] their truest
application, I may say to you, [that I] should justly be
suspected of motives of more [than] common enmity towards
your friend, were I [to at]tempt to promote a continuance of
your writing [in] his defence. You have done his cause more
[harm] than you are aware of, by leading him into [an
ex]posure he might otherwise have avoided; - and [now],
covered with disgrace, defeated and dismayed, you shrink
from the post at the very time, were you good for any thing,
you would have been the most [wanted.] You have commenced a
warfare: You have exposed your cause to open attack; but,
finding yourself insufficient to sustain your ground, [you
have like all] other cowards, deserted your [ranks] -
discharging, in a last desperate volley, the remnant of your
wretched missiles.
And do you not mean to return, either to [support] or
apologize for your assertions? Are you and your friends
privileged to calumniate and traduce character and
reputation with impunity? Have you not charged me with
parodying Holy Writ? Th[en] you will not support this
charge, or retract it? or, to use your own words, what are
the people of th[is] county to think of you? Will you not
inform me what you mean by your insinuation about losing the
plan of the vicinity of Kirkby Stephen, and of its loss
being supplied? If such plan has been lost, and its place
improperly filled, there are parties who must be answerable
for it; and to these parties I have written, (enclosing a
copy of your insinuations,) demanding from them an
explanation, the result of which shall be made known to the
public; to whom, for their satisfaction, and to my
Surveyors, for the preservation of their professional
characters, I hold myself bound to do justice in the station
I have the honour to fill. I will not prejudge the case; but
should it happen that this, like the rest of your
[ful]mination, has its origin in falsehood, you will be held
up to the contempt of every good man. To the public, not to
you, I consider it necessary to [state] that the vicinity of
Kirkby Stephen was surveyed by two of my most confidential
Assistants; one of whom (a brother) has been in my employ
eleven years; the other, though an apprentice, is extremely
clever, and has practiced without intermission in the
station he now fills, with every necessary superintendence,
for a period of nearly four years. They both have hitherto
acquitted themselves in a manner highly satisfactory to
their employers, in their respective departments. In order
to show that no error of the kind that has been insinuated,
can ultimately pass without [detec]tion, I will also
observe, that when the [Abstracts from] the Diagrams are
distributed, [each party pursues his] own particular field
of operation; and, on [completion] of the same, they are
regularly signed and tra[nsferred.] I have, therefore, the
opportunity when a complaint of this kind is preferred, of
commanding [an appropri]ate explanation; and, from my
knowledge of the party thus accused, and the opinion I have
formed of the disposition and character of their accusers, I
[have] the fullest confidence of a satisfactory result.
Your quotation of a paragraph which appeared in the Kendal
Papers some time ago, and your [remark]ing upon it in the
citation, as you proceed, [is the] strongest evidence of an
exhausted argument, [if an] argument it can be called. On
what, indeed, do [you] remark, as you proceed? Nothing more
than [what] has arisen purely out of an error of the press;
and not in the paper you receive, but the others. Your own
paper would not answer your purpose in this case, because
the error did not exist. And [are] you driven to such
materials as these? [Miserable] subterfuge! And do you talk
about Christian countries? Your next observation is in
character with the others. What is there incon[sistent in
the] yearly expenditure of a concern equally the [capital]
required to be constantly sunk in it? We [anticipate] the
expence of the whole work at about Two Hundred Thousand
Pounds. And did you suppose we had no return from the
publication of about [four] Counties a year? it is indeed
high time for you to quit the subject, altogether above your
comprehension.
C. GREENWOOD.
Penrith, Sept. 12, 1823.
Also in the Kendal Chronicle 13 September 1823.
|