SCOTLAND.
THREATENING LETTERS.—The Caledonian Mercury gives, in its number for last Saturday, the following copy of a letter sent to a shop- keeper of Edinburgh, who is, it seems, suspected of Whiggery-
. A , do not, for your own sake, vote for Abercromby and Jeffrey next election, for it will hurt your interest very much, and it will never doyen
any good to help the Whigs—they are a despicable crew ; but if you do vote for either of these people, then you may anticipate that no more of my custom—and you have had a good deal in your time, of late—will ever reach you again. Keep this to yourself, and act prudently. You have a family, and will be far better off than meddling with politics."
The letter has a postscript, where, as the Mercury observes, the real sentiments of the writer are most likely to be found; and truly the real sentiments of this canvasser in petticoats (the writer is of course a woman—the Tory gentlemen are too proud to communicate with the new voters even for the purpose of conunanding them) do credit to the school in which she received her political education. They are thus expressed-
" If you have promised already, never mind ; but don't rote. If you have not, vote for Blair. Ill inquire."
The Mercury is indignant at the immorality of this recommendation : we confess that, coupling the latter part of it with what goes before,—
namely, that Mr. A. having a family, ought not to meddle with polities,— we feel quite as much inclination to laugh as to rail at a writer whom it never seems to have struck, that voting for Blair was as much meddling with politics as voting for Jeffrey and Abereromby. There are con- siderations, however, involved in the system of which this religious lady is an humble agent, that are better worth attending to than her de.. linquencies, or the effect which they may have on Mr. A.'s sales. In the first place, we do not think that electors have much to fear from the workings of such a system, however formidable they may at
first sight appear. The Mercury shrewdly hints, that the consequences
of these foolish threats of vengeance will, in all probability, be fatal to the interests of the gentleman whom they are meant to serve—" It re- Mains," he says, " to.be seen how many ladies are required to ruin Mr. Blair.". But he might have gone a little further. The mere fact that no readier means could he devised for supporting Mr. Blair, is the strongest proof his friends could possibly afford, that his ruin is already consummated. Threats such as have been used towards Mr. A. in- dicate the desperation of those that employ them. They are the last miserable shift of a beggared and bankrupt party—the expiring whisper of the faction. " I will do as I like whim my own," said his Grace of Newcastle, in the Lope that, from fear of the pains and penalties to be incurred by all that were found guilty of treason against the majesty of Climber, Sergeant Wilde and Reform would be for ever excluded from Newark ; and what was the result ? Why, that not only Sergeant Wilde was returned, but Mr. Handley also !—two Reformers instead of one, for which in the first instance the Whigs would have been happy to compromise with his Grace. So much for action and reac- tion. As similar causes everywhere lead to similar effects, we can easily believe, what we sincerely hope, that the pious resolution of the Scotch Tories to banish common honesty from among their humble countrymen, will issue, as (lid the lordly threat of the noble Duke, in putting two Reformers into Parliament, instead of keeping one Re- former out of it.
• In the second place, we think that, in by far the greater number of instances, the electors against whom the threats of the Tories are directed have a sure remedy in their own hands. When the wicked conspire, the good ought to combine. The agreement of any set of men in a plan of action which is immediately injurious, and only pro- spectively beneficial, is difficult in proportion to their numbers ; and in that respect, the Tories have doubtless mighty advantages over the Be- formers,—for they are as few as perhaps even their enemies would wish them to be ; but that even large numbers of men may be brought to submit to great present inconvenience, in order to get rid of a grievance or to insure a good, it did not require the example of Ireland to prove : the .strikes, partial and general, which take place every year in the ma- nufacturing towns of England, had already sufficiently proved it. We are far from advising persecution for political more than for religious opinions. The mere fact of a man's being a Tory, ought not to ex- clude him from the sympathies of his brethren. But the case is en- tirely altered if, not content with the vindication of his own opinions, he seek to persecute others into a confession of them. To abstain from the common rights of hospitality and neighbourhood with such a person, is not merely allowable, it is justifiable on every principle of self-defence. The fair lady who coolly tells Mr. A. that she will, as far as her means allow, destroy his business and make beggars of his family, unless lie consent to make a scoundrel of himself by foregoing his promises, or by breaking them to gratify her, would be justly inter- dicted from fire and water. Were the people as ready to turn as their tyrants are to trample • upon them, such a person would be banished Scotland by acclamation. But there:is another and less tragical remedy, neither so difficult of attainment nor so violent in its action, to which Mr. A. and all elec- tors similarly situated may have recourse. It is one which requires no combination, and no co-operation. What would a London shopkeeper do were any one of our unhappy Tories so left to itself as to indite such a letter as that which we have given above ? Why, be would send copies of it to the Dailies and Weeklies ; he would have the original framed and exposed to the public gaze in his window ; the letter would figure on showboards and in handbills; it would be posted on walls and at corners of streets. Such a billet would be worth a Jew's eye to him ; he would gain more notoriety from it than from a twelvemonth's advertising in the Times. If Mr. A. therefore be a wise man, he will extract the means of cure from the weapon that has been aimed at him. Let him no longer modestly shelter himself in the generalities of the alphabet, but boldly announce his local habitation and his name, as well as that:of his fair. friend. The Reformers will speedily indemnify him tenfold for the abOtraction of her custom.
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