24 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



Stephens Review, you shall be dealt with as your 

 appearance may render advisable. I have the honour 

 to remain, sir, your most obedient servant, 



W. ALLISON, 



Editor St Stephen's Review. 

 J. MANFIELD, ESQ. 



It will be observed that the letter from Northampton, 

 purporting to have been written by Mr Labouchere's 

 agent in that constituency, was received at 7.30 P.M. 

 on Wednesday and it was in fact received at that time, 

 having been posted at Northampton with a view to 

 the evening delivery. The answer to it was posted 

 on the same evening, and the two letters having been 

 set up in type for the next morning's issue of the 

 paper, "pulls" of them were sent forthwith to the 

 Press Association and other news agencies. The 

 consequence was that the correspondence appeared in 

 almost all the morning papers, and The Pall Mall 

 Gazette came out with a special contents bill containing 

 in immense type the legend "Mr Labouchere, M.P., 

 wishes to fight a duel ! " 



That and that only was the announcement on the bill. 



One Radical paper complained bitterly of the folly 

 of Mr Labouchere, who had "laid himself open to 

 such a scathing retort ! " 



The affair was the sensation of a whole day before 

 Mr Labouchere could repudiate his own responsibility 

 in the matter, and, of course, many people did not 

 believe him when he did so. Needless to say, St 

 Stephen's Review obtained a splendid advertisement, 

 and at this distance of time I am free to confess that 

 I myself drafted the challenge as well as the answer 



