IN RE DRURY.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 159, 3 February 1868, Page 2

IN RE DRURY.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times and Charleston Argus.) Sir, —As Mr Drury has thought fit to reply in the Charleston paper to my recent letter in your journal anent Constable Ehodes, will you kindly allow me a word more, and I will promise not to trouble you further in the matter. The letter of the wwlearned gentleman is as great a tissue of nonsense, and as little to the point as possible ; for the sake of his clients it is to be hoped that his oratorical and argumentative powers exceed his literary ability. Throughout the letter he has clearly fastened on the wrong individual as the writer. As you are aware neither Constable Ehodes nor a person of " questionable character" had anything to do with my late epistle. I never implied even that there was " any disgrace in swagging," I merely objected to a man who was guilty of such blackguard conduct as to lead first to ejection from a dinner-table, and later in the evening to expulsion from an hotel, setting up as a censor of Constable Ehodes. As to never receiving friendly pity from a policeman that is simply false, as Cobden can tell. Mr Drury congratulates himself on the supposed " Old Cobdenite' never having locked him up ; did a Hokitikian ever lock him up pray, or has the key ever been turned on him in other places ? Dare he make the same boast in this respect? As to the writer ever having " placed himself within the pale of the law," or having been guilty of " obtaining drink or any goods under the false pretence of having the money to pay for such," I think you, Sir, who know me can testify to the contrary. Who Mr Drury supposes me to be, goodness only knows, but such a one as he describes is indeed a fitting associate for him, and I am not surprised at his efforts to release this hypothetical friend from durance. " A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind." As to my letter being the means of providing him with food and shelter he is perfectly welcome to all the advantages it may bring, but I hope he, at least, will show a greater degree of gratitude to me than he did to his Cobden friends, if such is the case. As I am unconscious of the above recited charges, so am I unaware of any " whip " having " fallen

across your graceful shoulders." I E resume the same hypothetical frieud as, no doubt, in some case or the other met with a fitting reward for good conduct. It is not necessary for me to trace Mr. Drury to Hokitika, the North Island, or Tasmania, though

if so minded I could give some details that might give the cue to his answers against police in general. Letting Mr Drury drop ; in conclusion let me say that Constable Rhodes was utterly unacquainted with the fact of my writing at all; and that when he read the paper containing it he was aware of it for the first time. If Rhodes has been guilty of exceeding his duty, if all the respectable storekeepers have just grounds of complaint let them call for an investigation and let it be seen whether the alleged misconduct has any foundation in fact; but their case must be bad when they pick up such a champion as Drury and stand in the background themselves. It is easy to sign a name ; why not come forward openly and make a charge and not adopt a lot of garbled facts hushed up and spiced to suit the palate of the discontented by such an eminent cook as exercises his art under the shelter of the- name of an absent attorney, aided by unblushing impudence and a morbid desire of becoming notorious on any account. I am, Sir, An Old Cobdenite,