"It has always appeared to me so impertinent for individuals to appeal
to the public on transactions merely private, that I own the most
apparent necessity does not prevent my entering into such a dispute
without an awkward consciousness of its impropriety. Indeed, I am not
without some apprehension, that I may have no right to plead your having
led the way in my excuse; as it appears not improbable that some ill-
wisher to you, Sir, and the cause you have been engaged in, betrayed you
first into this _exact narrative,_ and then exposed it to the
public eye, under pretence of vindicating your friend. However, as it is
the opinion of some of my friends, that I ought not to suffer these
papers to pass wholly unnoticed, I shall make a few observations on them
with that moderation which becomes one who is highly conscious of the
impropriety of staking his single assertion against the apparent
testimony of three. This, I say, would be an impropriety, as I am
supposed to write to those who are not acquainted with the parties. I
had some time ago a copy of these papers from Captain Wade, who informed
me that they were lodged in his hands, to be made public only by
judicial authority. I wrote to you, Sir, on the subject, to have from
yourself an avowal that the account was yours; but as I received no
answer, I have reason to compliment you with the supposition that you
are not the author of it. However, as the name _William Barnett_ is
subscribed to it, you must accept my apologies for making use of that as
the ostensible signature of the writer--Mr. Paumier likewise (the
gentleman who went out with me on that occasion in the character of a
second) having assented to everything material in it, I shall suppose
the whole account likewise to be his; and as there are some
circumstances which could come from no one but Mr. Mathews, I shall
(without meaning to take from its authority) suppose it to be Mr.
Mathews's also.