“Sir:  I have just perused a circular written by you, calling a meeting at the Castle Cumber Arms, with the object of forming what you are pleased to term, a yeomanry corps of respectable cavalry.  Now you are perfectly at liberty to bestow whatever epithets you wish upon your new corps, provided these epithets contain no unfair insinuation against existing corps.  I think, therefore, that whilst others have been for some time already formed in the neighborhood, your use of the term respectable was, to say the least of it, unhandsome.  I also perceive that you have written to some of my tenants, who are already enrolled in the Castle Cumber corps, and am informed that several of my men have already given up their arms and clothing, on account of an application from you to join your corps.  I presume, sir, you did not know that these persons belonged to the Castle Cumber troops, for, however anxious in the cause you may be, I need not point out to you a very obvious fact—­to wit—­that weakening a corps already embodied only tends to defeat the purpose for which it was designed.  I take it, therefore, for granted, that no gentleman, however great his influence, would ask any soldier to desert his colors, and I am sure you will tell those men that they ought to remain in the body in which they were enrolled, and in which enrollment their names have been returned to the war office.  In conclusion, I think that the tenant who does not reserve to himself the power of serving the landlord under whom he derives the whole of his property, is, in my opinion, both ungrateful and unprincipled:  and he who solicits him to resign that essential reservation is, I think, extremely indelicate.

“I am, &c, Cumber.”

To this Mr. Hartley sent the following:—­

“My Lord:  I cannot at all recognize the tyrannical principle you lay down in your definition of the relations between landlord and tenant.  I deny that a tenant necessarily owes any such slavish and serf-like duty to his landlord as you advocate; and I am of opinion, that the landlord who enforces, or attempts to enforce such a duty, is stretching his privileges beyond their proper limits.  I do not understand that any of your lordship’s tenantry have been solicited to join our new corps.  I have signed circular letters for my own tenantry, and if any of them have reached yours, it has been without either my consent or knowledge.

“I have the honor to be,
“My lord, &c,
“Henry Hartley.”

Lord Cumber to Henry Hartley, Esq.:—­

“Sir:  I beg to inquire whether you apply the word tyrannical to me?

“I have the honor, &c,
“Cumber.”

Henry Hartley, Esq., to the Eight Hon. Lord Cumber:—­

“My Lord:  I think if you had read my last communication with due attention, you might have perceived that I applied the term which seems to offend you, to your principles, rather than to yourself.  So long as your lordship continues, however, to advocate such a principle, so long shall I associate it with the epithet in question.