August 8th 1843
Dear Jack
This Editor chap1 has been codding2 us – not one word has yet appeared – and I think never will. The blackguard might have returned it.3
Well now the Mercury;4 either rearrange the present letter5 or tell me if I am to send it to him6 in its original state. It will be necessary for me to copy it, as I will have to send a private note reminding him of his promise and explaining why he did not hear from me sooner; it is also probable he may require some questions answered, and as I am always at hand it will be better to have all in my writing. You need not (if you do alter it) be particular in the writing, so lose no time. Let me have it by Saturday or Sunday evening at the farthest.
Carey was here to day seeing the wife off to Ireland. The old rascal looked better than he ought. I did not know until last Sunday that the daily papers are not published on Sunday7 – What a farce. Religious scruples of course, and yet they must print Monday’s paper on that day, and leave Saturday’s news a day late, whereas nothing remarkable ever occurs on Sunday – unless they would report sermons. (God forbid!)
How is Evans with regard to politics? I’m now within a trick of being a Repealer8 – My shilling will follow of course. I’ll keep that close tho’. Some of the Irish Tory papers say ‘Repeal they will have if the Govt. don’t coerce’9 (oh!) Suppose John Tyndall and Jim Evans10 chanced to be born Roman Catholics – would they be repealers?
‘Civil and Religious liberty’
‘More pigs and less parsons’
‘Ireland for the Irish’11
Protestantism! Puseyism!12 Popery! Methodism! Presbyterianism! everything! O’Connell and Repeal! Hurrah!
W. Ginty
RI MS JT 1/11/3607
LT Transcript Only
This Editor chap: presumably John Black, editor of the Morning Chronicle; see letter 0222, n. 2.
codding: hoaxing (OED).
returned it: presumably the letter Ginty described as ‘my precious charge’ in letter 0222.
the Mercury: the Liverpool Mercury.
the present letter: presumably a version of letter 0228.
him: John Smith, editor of the Liverpool Mercury.
the daily papers are not published on Sunday: There were, of course, Sunday newspapers, beginning with the Observer in 1791, although they were separate from daily newspapers, with even the Sunday Times, begun in 1822, having no relation to The Times.
a Repealer: a supporter of the Repeal Association which campaigned for the repeal of the Act of Union between Ireland and Britain.
‘Repeal they will have if the Govt. don’t coerce’: The Prime Minister Robert Peel refused to enact coercive legislation in Ireland, fearing that it would only increase support for Daniel O’Connell. This stance of deliberate indifference toward the Repeal Association and O’Connell’s mass meetings enraged reactionary Tories and Unionists within the Conservative Party.
Jim Evans: Phillip Evans.
‘Civil and Religious liberty’ … | …‘Ireland for the Irish’: slogans used by Irish nationalists.
Puseyism!: the High Church doctrines of the Oxford theologian Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800–82).
Please cite as “Tyndall0224,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 10 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0224