y, enters at some length
into that painful subject; and the following extracts from his
defence,--if defence it can be called, where there has never yet been
any definite charge,--will be perused with strong interest:--

"My learned brother proceeds to observe, that 'it is in vain for
Lord B. to attempt in any way to justify his own behaviour in that
affair: and now that he has so _openly_ and _audaciously_ invited
enquiry and reproach, we do not see any good reason why he should
not be plainly told so by the voice of his countrymen.' How far the
'openness' of an anonymous poem, and the 'audacity' of an imaginary
character, which the writer supposes to be meant for Lady B. may be
deemed to merit this formidable denunciation from their 'most sweet
voices,' I neither know nor care; but when he tells me that I
cannot 'in any way _justify_ my own behaviour in that affair,' I
acquiesce, because no man can '_justify_' himself until he knows of
what he is accused; and I have never had--and, God knows, my whole
desire has ever been to obtain it--any specific charge, in a
tangible shape, submitted to me by the adversary, nor by others,
unless the atrocities of public rumour and the mysterious silence
of the lady's legal advisers may be deemed such.[2] But is not the
writer content with what has been already said and done? Has not
'the general voice of his countrymen' long ago pronounced upon the
subject--sentence without trial, and condemnation without a
charge? Have I not been exiled by ostracism, except that the shells
which proscribed me were anonymous? Is the writer ignorant of the
public opinion and the public conduct upon that occasion? If he is,
I am not: the public will forget both long before I shall cease to
remember either.

"The man who is exiled by a faction has the consolation of thinking
that he is a martyr; he is upheld by hope and the dignity of his
cause, real or imaginary: he who withdraws from the pressure of
debt may indulge in the thought that time and prudence will
retrieve his circumstances: he who is condemned by the law has a
term to his banishment, or a dream of its abbreviation; or, it may
be, the knowledge or the belief of some injustice of the law or of
its administration in his own particular: but he who is outlawed by
general opinion,