from the nature of my address to your Lordship, that this objection could not apply to me. I have neither raised, nor did I ever intend to raise, any action of damages against the conductors of the Beacon, and, therefore, the expression of your Lordship's opinion, in regard to the insults offered to me, can have no effect whatever upon any actions now pending, or which may yet be raised at the instance of other parties. I again, therefore, beg your Lordship to give the subject, on which I have been compelled to address you, your most serious and candid consideration. And I confidently hope, that you will make me such a communication, as will put an end to this painful correspondence. The means are in your Lordship's power. I have the honour to be, with respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient, and most humble servant, The Right Honourable the JA. STUART. Lord Advocate. P. S. Though I am anxious to go to the country on urgent business, I shall wait in town for your Lordship's reply. No. V.-LETTER from the Lord Advocate to Mr Sir, Stuart. St Catharine's, 16th September 1821. As it now appears to me, that you are disposed to raise a personal question with me on the subject of your present correspondence, I deem it fitting that I should be guided by the advice of a friend in the answer which I ought to make to the letter just received. I regret the delay which this must unavoidably occasion in transmitting my reply. I have the honour to be, James Stuart, Esq. Your obedient servant, No. VI.-LETTER from the Lord Advocate to Mr Stuart. St Catharine's, 16th September 1821. Sir, I have attentively considered, with the aid of a friend, your letter of yesterday's evening, which I received this morning. You therein express your expectation, that I will perceive the responsibility which attaches to me, so long as my name remains at the Bond; and will be satisfied of the propriety of allowing you publicly to declare my disapprobation of the B attacks on your character, alluded to in your former letter. In my last communication to you, unconscious as I then was of any such responsibility being supposed to attach to me, I informed you, that I disapproved of all attacks upon private character, and that, in so far as either sanction or approval is concerned, the articles applicable to you receive neither at my hands. What I thus said appears to me to have gone beyond any thing I was bound to say, and ought to have been amply satisfactory to you. connection The communication which I made of my with the Beacon was in reply to an inquiry, expressly founded on the intention to urge a pecuniary responsibility on those who stood in such connection with that Paper. The Bond, as you probably know, contains an express declaration on the part of the subscribers, that they are not proprietors, nor hold any control over the conduct of the Paper, or interest in its concerns, beyond the pecuniary credit,-a circumstance which must in that action, if insisted on, be deemed very important. I have no objection, however, that the question be tried in a Court of Law; but I peremptorily deny either that or any other species of responsibility connected with the articles in question. I trust, therefore, that you will be satisfied, that you have no right to require of me to peruse the Numbers of the Beacon formerly sent, and to pronounce any further opinion upon articles which are, in a great measure, unknown to me, and with the publication of which I had no concern. I have the honour to be, Your obedient servant, James Stuart, Esq. WM. RAE. No. VII.-LETTER from Mr Stuart to the Lord Advocate. 2, North Charlotte Street, Monday Morning, 17th September 1821. My Lord, In the letter which I had yesterday evening the honour of receiving from your Lordship, you were pleased to state, that I ought to be satisfied with your assurance, that the attacks upon my honour and cha racter, contained in the Beacon Newspaper, have not received either sanction or approval at your Lordship's hands. But, I must be pardoned for thinking, that I am entitled to something more than a mere private assurance of this kind. I have been publicly traduced in a Paper, supported, in part, by means furnished by your Lordship; in the success of which you have a pecuniary interest; and which continues to enjoy your Lordship's countenance. These facts fully justify me in requesting, that your Lordship should authorize me to make public your disavowal of all approbation of the attacks made on my character in the Numbers of the Beacon which I formerly specified. The stress which your Lordship seems to lay upon the declaration of the Subscribers, that they are to have no control in the management of the paper, obliges me to observe, that I am persuaded your Lordship would not, as a man of honour, say, that, had a change taken place in the political principles advocated in the Beacon, you would not either have insisted on a change of management, or have withdrawn your name from the Bond. From the nature of your connection with this Paper, it appears to me, that your Lordship must be presumed to know, that it has been made the vehicle of weekly attacks on private character; and it is for your Lordship to consider, whether, disapproving, as you say you do, of all such attacks, it would not have been becoming either to have insisted on a change of management in this particular, or to have withdrawn your support. It only remains for me to state, that, in requesting that your Lordship's disavowal of all approbation or sanction of the attacks made upon me should be made public, my own opinion entirely coincides with that of friends, in whose judgment I can implicitly confide. I have the honour to be, with respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant, J The Lord Advocate. JA. STUART. |