THE GOVERNOR AND THE REBEL.
THE "rebel" MACKENZIE, according to newspaper authority, failed in business a good many years ago, somewhere in the neigh- bourhood of Dundee; and when the Whigs and Tories were raking up old calumnies and forging new ones against the man, it was announced with supreme satisfaction that he had been a bankrupt. That was deemed sufficient to damn him. BROWN, too, had been a bankrupt ; and what respect-a-ble person could say a word in favour of a cause so disreputably patronized? It happened that MACKENZIE, in process of time, saved enough of money to pay his creditors ; and that on his last visit to England, he went to the scene of his former difficulties and discharged the old claims against him. But this was a plebeian mode of pro- ceeding. Mark the difference between MACKENZIE and one of the aristocracy, a person in high office, the Governor of one of our Colonies. The last West India mail brings the following account of a trial in Trinidad- " Sir G. F. Hill, the Governor of that island, was indebted to Messrs. Run. deli and Bridge, since the year 1825, on a bond for 3811. Is. 4d., with interest from the date; which remaining unsatisfied, they sued his Excellency in the law courts of the island under his Fovertunekt. Be pleaded his prinikge Ia bar, as not being subject to the jurtsdirtion of the Court. The plea, however, was overruled, and judgment recorded for the plaintiffs. The report states tbst Sir George intended to appeal; but the Barbadoes paper remarks, ' A meek better mode of getting rid of the transaction would be to pay the debt.'" The writer of the Barbadoes paper is evidently a low fellow of the MACKENZIE stamp. He thinks that Sir GEORGE HILL ought to pay his debts, especially debts twelve years old : but Sir GEORGE pleads that be is the supreme Magistrate of the island, and protests against being compelled to do any thing so dero- gatory to his dignity. And therein lies a very important difference between Governor HILL and Rebel MACKENZIE. But then, MACKENZIE is one of a class who have no privilege to cheat, and whose misfortunes in trade are to be thrown in their teeth as crimes; whereas Sir GEORGE HILL it highly connected, a gen- tleman, and belongs to a clique who think it no sin to bilk. trades- men.
So the world wags. Yet there may be some old-fashioned persons who, after all, think the outlaw MACKENZIE on Navy Island, quite as reputable a person as Governor HILL at Trini- dad. RUNDELL and BRIDGE, we dare affirm, would as soon trust one as the other. The rebel's conscience was more potent than the Governor's bond.
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