A foolish outcry is now r...
A foolish outcry is now raised against this paper, because we do not coine forward to reply to an injudicious challenge of persons who fancy themselves to be friendsofMr. FA U N T- I.EBOY. As faras we are personally concerned, we are very little disturbed by the gabbling of these unwise persons. But it may, perhaps, be worthy of remark, as a curiosity in the history of human opinion, that the same identical article which is now quoted as a cruel attack upou thecha- racter of Nlr,FAu;TLsaRoY,Wvas at first denouinced in themost unmeasured terms as a maudlin anid even unprincipled at. tempt to excite compassion for a criminal whose conduct ought, it was said, to have be3n described in terms of un- mitigated reprobation. We certainly are not simple enough to hope to please every body; nor are we very much move(d when we finm that our impartiality in any 'matter of im- portant litigation fails to please cither of the parties in- terested. In all such cases we are content to wait till the ternporary fervor has abated, and till the truth of thc facts shall vindic.te the honesty of our motives. So we fecl at present: we will not siffer the intemperance [of self-called friends to prevoke us to say one word which may weaken the efFect of the eloquent appeal of a man struggling for his life. Nay, more: we have no hesi.: tation in expressing a mnost earnest wish, that the Privy Council will not decide on the case of Mr. FAUNTLEnOY without calling upon his partners to state, on oath, wvlether .ius accusation against them be ,vell or ill-foundet. If such all inivestigationi shall appear' to exceed the powers vested in the Cotuncil, let us hope that- the. REcORD- En's report will not be made till the sworn exami- nation of the partners before the commnissioni of bankruptcy shall nianifest the real state of the case. We knowv, and every infant in the practice of the courts of law must know, that the legal guilt of the case is not altered one jot by the most perfect proof of every item of such a defence as MNIr. FAUNTLEROY set up: yet if the moral guilt is diminislhed by the proof of such a statement, it is fitting that an opportunity should be allowed for the ad- mission of suchl proof where only it can be admitted, not for the purpose of alurhwg the verdict, but of mitigating the severity of tile punishiment.