The Dublin Corporation, at the period, was considered as the stronghold of the Protestant ascendancy, and the hostility to what were called the Catholic claims was carried to great excess. Mr. O’Connell, the champion of his party, assumed a tone equally violent and acrimonious; and at a meeting of the Catholics, held in Dublin, spoke of the corporation of that city in the most contemptuous terms, and amongst other abusive epithets, called it “a beggarly corporation,” an expression which soon became a by-word with their opponents. Mr. D’Esterre, a young man of great respectability and high spirit, felt indignant at the reproach cast upon the body of which he was a member; and there is reason to believe that his indignation was fanned by the instigation of his colleagues, who were anxious to rid themselves of such a formidable opponent as O’Connell. D’Esterre, therefore, addressed a letter to O’Connell, to know whether he had used the expression which the public papers attributed to him. O’Connell, in reply, neither admitted nor disclaimed the alleged charge, but stated that no terms, however reproachful, could exceed the contemptuous feelings he entertained for the corporation as a public body. To this he added, that his letter must close all correspondence on the subject. Mr. D’Esterre was advised to address another letter to Mr. O’Connell, which was returned unread, by that gentleman’s brother. Various reports were now circulated, and it was stated that D’Esterre intended to offer O’Connell personal violence, should he meet him in the streets. Thus did a week pass, during which threats and violent language were exchanged between the two hostile parties; and it was generally concluded that a duel could not be avoided. Mr. George Lidwell, at Mr. O’Connell’s request, had waited a few days in Dublin expecting a message from Mr. D’Esterre, and at length Sir Edward Stanley, Barrack-master of Dublin, and a friend of Mr. D’Esterre, waited on O’Connell with the hostile message so long expected. The challenge was accepted, and the necessary arrangements were made between Major Macnamara and Sir E. Stanley. The parties met at Bishop’s Court demesne, Lord Ponsonby’s seat, in the county Kildare, thirteen miles from Dublin. It is said that in the meeting Mr. D’Esterre had been very disadvantageously placed by his second, being in a line with a tree, which afforded direction to his adversary’s aim. BETWEEN COLONEL QUENTIN AND COLONEL PALMER. February 9, 1815.