22 DECEMBER 1838, Page 9

A second letter from Colonel Thompson to the Secretary of

the Hull Working Men's Association, is an indignant protestation against the exe- cution of the American prisoners captured in the Canadian warfare. The Colonel draws a parallel between Don Carlos and the English Aristocracy. He contends that the Americans had as much right to in- terfere in the Canadian quarrel, as Englishmen had to assist the Queen of Stain against Don Carlos ; and that to treat the American prisoners as pirates. puts Englishmen on iklevel with the author of the Durango decree- " Americans acting an the avowed British principle of international law, have been made prisoners of war. Your aristocracy is on the point of covering you with intlooy, such as has been the lot of no nation since the Christian lent : an infamy which will cling to your children, and make them and you a by- word firr barisirians to mock at. Go no more to Russia ; you will be pelted by the Cossacks in the streets, for the misery of being obliged to add Englishmen to Your titles. Your aristocracy propose to murder their prisoners ; and the *Whig-Radical press supports diem in their design. Rententher how Europe, Absolutists and all,—for there arc good men in the Absolutist,' ranks. as know if yint do not,—remonber how men of all castes and political creeds when Boyd the Englishman was murdered a: a prisoner of war by a brutal tiietion holding the powers of government in Spain. Remember again what a horror ran through all civilized nations, when in the :ante month?g the prisoners of war made from your own fellow citizen:, were brought out and inur- &red by order of Don Carlos. In my place in the House of Commons, I gave the Mott his proper name, and intimated by words ;old gesture my trust that Le would die a him'', death upon a tree. I hereby apologize to him, if in any thing I said, I rashly seemed to cut off his chance of being relieved front sin- gularity of guilt. You, Sir, perhaps have lived where strict morals and domestic purity held unbroken sway. It may or may not he known to you, 5e4 it is to men who have passed their lives in all sinful callings' like myself, that among the SOUS and daughters of dissipation there exists a notion, that the omsopienees of one particular species of lllll floridity are to he ;pit rid off by speedy communication to another victim. DIM t'arlos hos leip,,1 hM,saf dean wpm, the English Aristocracy. L0111 John Rassell or his orpa it. taunted it with being no arisMerat. If he knew 1 11. low in thankfulness to the Dis- poser of all events, that no such misfortune clings to me or mine, he would feel the full force of the favour done to me, by employing the engioe of the press in authenticatiou of the fact."

The Colonel maintains that there is no law by which the prisoners could be put to death- " These men are to be put to death after a mock comet-martial. I do not know whether Dint Carlos went through any such proce-s, but whether he did

or did not is indifferent. There is no hoc in existence .thr pitting it r war Ito ileitth lig testy :melt proceeding, tuts melee than 1/ Lord .1„h„ shttall send It II anther of his eittlaterteil Pithily/1 fit pia Mil/ Or HO' L. ,both prO101f mot identity. There is a Mutiny Act annually passed for mini:Idog mutiny and desertion in the enlisted soldier, and there are Artieles of War specifying the punishment Mr various offence: against military. discipline ; there i t sitar fir the ;north,- of prisoners. It there is, produce it. If there mot, then every man onto:rued Is liable at any time to be proceeded agaimt murder in any civil court in Great Britain or America ; to say nothims of the stings of conscience, and the suffering of bearing about a Cain-like reminis- cence for the rest of life. If an At of Indenmity should soggy-t itself the answer is, that indemnities passed by criminals Mr their out I, crimes are re- pealed ipsoiheto when honest Men Mille into power."

Proceeding on the assumption that the prisoners will he put to death, Colonel Thompson warns his readers that the hatred of all civi- lized nations will be roused against Englishmen, and that even a depu- tation front the " conquerors of Warsaw " may arrive " to pray the Eng- lish Aristocracy to preserve the lineaments of men." Ile calls upon the people, rather than submit to this shame, to petition the Queen to turn out the Whigs-

" A girl is but a girl; but it happens that this girl is an organ of constitu- tional power, and she shall not be abused. Go to her with your petitions ; fall at her feet ; tell her we represent the proud Republicans who drove it rival family from the throne, Alta by their accession to the general compact, placed and maintained her dynasty in the vacant seat ; and say we lay our foreheads in the dust, begging, imploring her to remove the 'brutal and bloody men who are covering throne, coronets, and people, in one common shame."

[With the greatest deference to Colonel Thompson, his analogy be- tween Don Carlos and the British Government thils. Don Carlos was himself a rebel, and obnoxious to a rebel's punishment : Queen Isabella was the recognized Sovereign of Spain, and the close ally of England : the English Government sanctioned the inlistment of its subjects in her service. But the American invaders of Upper Canada were outlaws— disavowed by the Government of their own country, whose laws they violated, and whose protection they forfeited : they essayed to over- throw a lawful foreign government—supported, it appears, by the great majority of the people living under it—recognized by and in alliance with their own. It would be unwise to create sympathy, which does not now exist, for these land-pirates, by needless effusion of their blood : but at the same time, it is not easy tc see what should he done with them. Shall they be let loose ?—to enable them to repeat their attacks? Are they to be exchanged as prisoners of war ?—who would receive then?—who owns them? The lair, which would decree their execution, is that which authorizes all governments to hang pirates. General Jackson stretched this law when he shot two Englishmen, captured among hostile Indians ; and the American Government sanctioned the proceeding.]