ABUSE IS NOT ARGUMENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 137, 26 September 1868, Page 4

ABUSE IS NOT ARGUMENT.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —Although it is long since I had time or inclination for Novel reading, 1 remember a tale of Marryafs, in which he relates the incidents of a triangle duel; and it appears to me that in pursuing the course I have marked out for myself on this occasion that it is highly probable 1 shall involve myself in some such perilous position as the combatants in that sanguinary engagement. In the Hist place I would beg to offer a few remaiks on certain proceedings taken by a gentleman of the long robe, whereby the proprietor of your journal appears to have been placed in bodily fcai—(i.e., legally speaking). Now, Sir, as a calm and disinterested observer of passing events, 1 must say that i think the learned gentleman aforesaid lias most decidedly taken a very undignified course. To expatiate on the value of the free press in the 68th year of the 19th Century, appears to me to he superfluous; to give liberty to all and a free forum, where trudi and falsehood may grapple, seems to me to be the highest attribute of a public journal; yet, Sir, the publisher of the Express is to be horsewhipped, or his head is to bo “ punched,” and for what 7 Because a correspondent sends a letter, which in the usual manner is pubhshed in the column s ecially set apart for public discussions and the free expression of opinion. Fortunately my age and position places me out of the ranks'of the would-be aristocracy; the sneers of “ A Father,” “or any other man,” “pass by me as the idle wind, which I respect not;” but hud I taken upon myself the Championship of any cause, 1 should have preferred fighting my battle with that most potent and gentlemanly of all weapons—the pen ! In the pages of an independent newspaper a man of sense can always find “ a dear stage and no favor ;” but the man who attempts to lift the veil of the Editorial sanctum with irreligious hands, or who imagines that by acting the part of a “ swashbuckler’’ he can stifle the voice of public opinion, will find, to say the least, that he has mistaken his vocation and lost his pains “ To err,” however. “ is human,” and it is to he hoped that this little fracas which basset the tongues of all the . cundalmongers in Blenheim fairly wagging, will be amicably arranged. I must now request permission to say a few words on the letter which has been the cause of war. Judging from its tone, I should imagine the . writer to have been at the time under the influence of some peculiar irritation. As 1 know nothing of the persons to whom he refers, it is not for me to say whether they possess the amusing qualifications of “ popinjays ” or not. or whether that'.particular variety of hipedous mamals are interesting br otherwise ; but this I do know, that temperatelanguage becomes all men, and, the calling of hard names will; prove no argument. ■ ? y. Hud “A Father ” animadverted oh-the'ahominti-tions of snohism in general, and the manner-in which more than one entertainment has been -conducted in Blenheim in particular, he have - found a large circle of sympathisers. Sifp&e think there are very few who conscientiously'believe that Piphrheria or any other disease is more or lees Ilian the necessary effects of natural causes—-to be removed of cured by natural means. ■ Until tins position is proved untenable, I cannot accept the theory of supernatural visitation ; consequently I cannot see reason why those who are in the enjoy>»f ment of health and youth should clothe thfefnselvesin sackcloth and ashes. 1 have personally endured' all the sorrows of bereavement when the teuderest ties of love have been severed by the hand of death, nor has time shut out sympathy from my heart. More than once “ mine eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood,” have dropped tears upon the graves of those who have so lately been snatched from our midst, nevertheless my obtuse intellect fails'to discover anything “indecorous” or “insulting” in any number of persons uniting-together lor the purpose ot rational enjoyment. 1 very much question the probability bl even “ A Father ” feeling

disposed to. set -.the of humiliation,, by itriiikiMg.il glass of wino less at dinner, or closing; Ins shop (if he-lias one), nor even of curtailing the supply of” lollies ” to the little ” olive Inaiielie.- ” that flourish round his board, as the prelude of a fast. Let us not mourn as men without ,h >pe he merry and'wise, standing erect in I lie 'dimnity olour manhood, despising l he cant of obsolete superstition and antiquated fauut.eisiu —Yours, &c., Iconoclast. Blenheim, September 24th, 1868.