A satirical attack on Sydney merchant Horton James (the 'tobacconist'), who had outraged Laurence Hynes Halloran by comments made in a letter published in the Australian on 3 February, 1827, which supposedly defamed Halloran's daughter. James subsequently sued Robert Howe, editor of the Sydney Gazette, for publishing Halloran's intemperate letter of reply, and this poem was presumably written by Halloran in response to the outcome of the trial. Notably, the poem itself became the subject of a second libel action brought by James, this time against Halloran, as editor and publisher of the Gleaner.
