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ALLEGED MURDER OF MR.
WILSON, OF BENBURB.
We confess our feelings were not a little shocked to read in the Evening
Packet of Thursday last, two letters, one dated Castleblaney, 25th November,
and the other Hollypark, same date, giving an account of a barbarous
outrage alleged to have been committed in the neighbourhood of Carrickmacross,
county Monaghan, on the above-named gentleman and two of his attendants,
which terminated in the death of Mr. WILSON, leaving the other two in
a dangerous state. Both the letters conveyed the same news, and were
evidently the production of the same diabolical mind, written for what
purpose we are not able positively to assert, although certain circumstances
connected with the gentleman in question lead us to conjecture more
than it would be prudent here to mention.
It affords us peculiar pleasure to be able to state that the whole is
a perfect falsehood. Mr. WILSON in " proper person," called
at our office on Friday last, which gives the lie direct to the inventor
of the malicious communication published in the Evening Packet. He never
was engaged on the survey of the line of railway at or near Castleblaney,
which renders the falsehood more glaring, and the trick so much the
more devilish and evil-minded.
To the Editor of the Armagh
Guardian.
Mail, Armagh, 29th Nov., 1845.
DEAR SIR,--On my return here to-day, I was both surprised and alarmed,
when I read in the Newry Telegraph of this date a leading article, commenting
on the " murder of a Mr. Wilson;" and, as that gentleman was
employed in the capacity of an Assistant Engineer on " the Dublin
and Armagh Inland Line," of which I am the Irish Solicitor, I lost
no time in instituting inquiries on a subject, which the remarks of
the Editor invested so much terror. The result of my inquiries proved
that the whole story was a heartless and malicious fabrication, designed,
at once, to outrage humanity ; to libel a peaceful district of country
; and to harrow up the most cherished feelings of domestic life.
I do not at all wonder that the highly respectable Editor of the paper
alluded to fell into the error of believing the concoction to be based
on truth ; for the statement was so artfully worded as to mislead any
journalist. But I feel it due to the district so wantonly libelled,
thus publicly to declare, that in all our preliminary proceedings in
that quarter, we not only experienced no obstruction, but met with the
kindest co-operation and the most hearty good will. After what I have
written, it is needless to say, that the gentleman whose premature fate
has been so solemnly recorded in the journals of the day, is in the
enjoyment of perfect health, and is determined by every means in his
power, to discover the author of this imaginary outrage ; an object
in which, for the sake of society, I shall feel it my duty to give him
my cordial support. I have addressed a similar letter to the Editor
of the Newry Telegraph.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
JOHN CUMING.
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