innocent holders, such holders had not only no claim against
the community by whose executive and representatives this act
was omitted, but that they are to be taunted for appealing to
the verdict of the civilized world, rather than to the judgment
of the legal officers of the State by whose functionaries they
have been already robbed; and that the ruin of toilworn men, of
women, of widows, and of children, and the 'crocodile tears'
which that ruin has occasioned, is a subject of jest on the
part of those by whom it has been accomplished; and then let it
be asked if any foreigner ever penned a libel on the American
character equal to that against the people of Mississippi by
their own Senator.'

To this reply of the London _Times_, which (except in portions of
Mississippi) was generally approved throughout the Union, Mr. Jefferson
Davis responded in a very long letter, dated from his residence,
Brierfield, Mississippi, August 29, 1849, addressed to the editors of
the _Mississippian_. He begins as follows:

'The London _Times_ of July 13, 1849, contains an article which
most unjustly and unfairly attacks the State of Mississippi and
myself, because of a statement I made in refutation of a
former calumny against her, which was published in the same
paper.'

This article of the London _Times_ Mr. Davis denounces as 'a
_foreigner's slander_ against the government, the judiciary, and people
of Mississippi;' 'very well for the high Tory paper as an attack upon
our republican government;' as 'untrue;' 'the hypocritical cant of
stockjobbers and _pensioned presses_' 'reckless of reputation;' 'hired
advocates of the _innocent_ stock dealers of London 'Change;' 'a
calumnious imputation.' These are pleasant epithets which Mr. Jefferson
Davis applied to the London _Times_ and the London 'Change. But Mr.
Jefferson Davis was very indignant, not only with London, but with all
England; for he says,

'With far more propriety might _repudiation_ be charged on the
_English Government_, for the reduction of interest on her
loans when she consolidated her debts; for the income tax,
which compels fundholders to return part of the interest they
receive on their evidences of public debt, for the support of
the Government which is their debtor.'

According, then, to Mr. Jefferson Davis, the London _Times_ and the
London 'Chang