A CLEAN BREAST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1249, 14 June 1864, Page 5

A CLEAN BREAST.

TO THB KOITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Sir,—You will do me a kindness by inserting this letter in your columns. As there are idle stories going the rounds of this place, stories that are anything but complimentary to me, I wish to make known the true state of things. Some few weeks ago I went to the diggings, but meeting with no success there I very soon returned. Finding that there was little or nothing to be done with the store, which I keep in this place, owing to the general stagnation of things since the diggings started, it was my intention to get work somewhere and then sell off my stock in the store at cost price, settle with my creditors as far as I could, and then pay off my remaining debts with interest whenever I should be able to do so. But not having been able to get work after spending nearly a week in looking for it, I intended, as I had a boat, to get it in order and run it between this place and Lyttelton, and also to carry out my intention of selling off, all of which I gave notice of. In consequence of all this, a man who was my security to a considerable amount called on me and gave me to understand that he had heard, and that he believed himself, that I was about to sell off and abscond, and also that he had heard curious stories about me, and so on. In consequence of this I immediately gave over my intention of selling off, and as I afterwards heard of a job which, should I be successful in getting it, would place me in a position to clear off my debts gradually, I relinquished my original intention altogether. Now it appears to me that when one man agrees to stand security for another, he should do so only with the most perfect reliance on the other's honesty, and that lie should never accuse the other of a dishonest intention without a sufficient. reason. As it is, I shall be talked about as one who was only stopped from absconding by the energy of the person who stood in part security for me. ' And now, to give the cowardly knaves who speak ill of me behind my back every chance to indulge in their contemptible propensity, I have to state that my real name is not Benjamin Williams, this being a name that I assumed when I left a whale ship about ten years ago; and, to make the thing as horrible aa possible, I would state that I, in company with three others, made off from the ship witli a boat which we never afterwards returned; and finally I have to make the terrible announcement in allusion to the ship that if I were ever to be placed in the same circumstances again I would probably do the same thing again as I had done before. I am, Sir, Yours respectfully, BENJAMIN WILLIAMS. N.B.—ln addition to the above, I hereby give notice that I, Vitruvius Frazer, son of John Frazer, deceased, architect and sculptor, of New York City, U.S.A., having lived under the assumed name of Benjamin Williams for the space of about ten years, am now determined to take and adhere to my real npme during the remainder of my life. And that I hold myself responsible for all transactions whatsoever and wheresoever executed under my assumed name. All communications for me must henceforth be addressed to me in my real name, VITRUVIUS FRAZER.