Original Correspondence.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 1370, 18 September 1858, Page 3

Original Correspondence.

To the Editor of the " New Zealand Spectator." Wellington, September 16, 1858. Sib, —With a deep emotion of gratitude, from the bottom of ray heart, I thank the writer of a roost candid and valuable letter in your last impression, dated *• the Hutt,” and bearing the signature “ A Dissenterand in him, I would also.thank numerous others, who have addressed roe privately by letters, which in tone and .substance, are transcripts of his own. Bather, I would thank God who hath put it into his and their hearts thus, undeterred by a false shame or lisllessicess, to vindicate their sense of truth and justice; and further who bath eo over-ruled the issue of this trial, that beyond my best hopes, it has been generally regarded with indignation and contempt. Those who follow the way of persecution most commonly over-reach themselves. This has been signally the case in these proceedings. The object was to condemn me without a hearing; the result is, that even without an explicit denial on my part, the very'evidence itself has cleared me in the public mind, and brought those into almost universal condemnation who could consent to such a verdict. The object was to degrade me past recovery ; the result, blessed be God, has been to raise roe in public sympathy and respect, as the victim of unmerited vindictive feeling. I am especially grateful to those, who, like the writer of the letter published by you, being of a different religious persuasion from myself, have so generously asserted their sense of right. If I know myself, I can honestly reciprocate the feeling, and declare, that, if it bad pleased God in His wisdom, to have subjected to the same indignity and suspiciou, any other of the several ministers of religion resident among ourselves, of whatever denomination, I should not, without the clearest demonstration, have admitted the probability of his guilt, and would have laboured with my best abilities of voice and pen, to set him riglrt in public opinion. The gross injustice of the case, iu almost all its cir cumstances, is scarcely yet made patent to the public. There is this extraordinary incident in the history of the verdict itself; that pnp, who had first solemnly declared that he did not believe me guilty, yet joined the majority iu the conviction. Had he remained with the minority, who, like himself, had pronounced me innocent .of tire charge, the numbers would have been equal, and tpe,verdict quashed by a casting vote. I do not doubt the sincerity of his motives ip acting as he did. But, as u mutter, of fact, my position nt the present moment is

just this, —1 cm condemned,' not by the Bench of Magistrates, but by a bare majority, which majority was occasioned by one, who had previously declared me “ not guilty" of the charge:—that is, for whatever reason, he consented to inflict a penalty on the innocent. 1 will not go into the wicked calumnies, and shamefill acts of spite, which have been perpetrated against me in private, so as to prejudice the ease. The ontnv’o of tampering with my own household in the hope of turning evidence against me, has not been spared. Perversions and inventions, slanderous us the charge itself, and brought in to prop it up with d prlorf probability, (even to the extent of imputing previous similar immoralities) have, to my knowledge, prejudiced even favourable minds. I solemnly declare, once lor all, in the most explicit and unequivocal language I cun command, that such imputations arc totally without foundation ; that never, in the whole course <.f M v now nearly twenty years’ ministry, either publish- or privately, has any charge of similar or any immorality, reached my ears. God knows 1 do not say so boastfully, but with a humiliating sense of innumerab’e errors and infirmities, which deserve u far severer chastisement than this. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, AllTHUll BAKEII.