The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 295, 8 November 1875, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1875.

" ,l ******"M---»»-..^.^-^_B.____^, MMW , M^ tM^ We have heard a good deal of late of a letter addressed to Mr Brissenden that was supposed to have been stolen from the Wellington Club, and, after being missing for some time, was enclosed to that gentleman by Colonel M'Donnell, in whose possession it had been for three days. Our telegrams recently informed us that an enquiry had been held upon the matter, the result of which was that the Colonel was censured for having retained a document to which he had no right whatever. That such censure was fully deserved will, no doubt, be fully believed by all who read the correspondence to which the affair gave rise, which will be found in the fourth page of to-day's issue. Mr Brissenden's accusations may be set on one side altogether, as Colonel McDonnell's defence ia quite sufficient to condemn him in the opinion of all right thinking persons. On a certain Monday an envelope addressed to him in pencil was put into his hands containing a letter from Mr Macfarlane to Mr Brissenden. The course that any gentleman might have been expected to pursue would have been to forward it at once to the rightful owner, but Colonel M'Donnell chose rather -to retain possession of it until the following Thursday, showing it in the meantime to two or three of his friends, and taking a certified copy of it in the presence of a clerk of the Parliament. Colonel M'Donnell must have known that the receipt by him of the letter was owing either to an accident or to its having been sent to him by Mr Brissenden. Considering that he and the. last named gentleman were upon anything but friendly terms, the latter contingency he must have known was impossible, and consequently he should not have bad the slightest hesitation as to was his duty. What his advisers, who appear to havo been Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan, were about, we cannot understand, any more than we are able to conceive why he should require any advice at all under such circumstances. He had come into possession of a letter that evidently was not intended for his perusal, and he had no more right to retain it than he had to appropriate a five-pound note that he might have picked up knowing it tb have dropped out of Mr Brissenden's or Mr anybody else's pocket. He has escaped with a censure, and he may congratulate himself upon the lightness of his punishment, but of what his fellow men will think of his extraordinary and inexcusable conduct there can be but one opinion.