THE Loan ADVOCATE AGAIN. — ['he old proverb says, half an ounce
of mother wit is worth a pound of clergy. Speech, said a diplomatiat,'Was given to man to conceal his thoughts ! Is it from deficiency of motisec wit, from too much clergy, or from his employing speech to its legitimate purpose, that Mr: Jeffrey is so unfortunate in his harangues ? It, cer- tainly is singular, that one who speaks sa well should have so much difficulty in making people comprehend his meaning. Here is hee.nd an Honourable Donald t heinvy of Clove, explaining away by the colmain, on a subject that would not have cost a plain straightforward person; twa sentences to settle. Mr Jeffrey, it seems, at the election dinner at Perth, the other day, drank Mr. Mantle of Num are's health, and the independent. freeholders of Forfar, and alluded to the discomfiture of the enemies, of Reform in that county. Blazes up immediately the Honourable Dowd& Ogilvy, at the fancied indignity of being called a Non-independene and an enemy of Reform; and away posts a letter demanding explanation. Now, what, in the name of wonder, had the Lord Advocate to answer to this most unreasonable of all correspondents, but that his ideas of ,Re. form and Mr. Jeffrey's differed ?—that what the Tory Honourable Donald Ogilvy called Reform, the Lard Advocate called no Reform ; and as to Independent, that it meant, when so employed as he had employed it, nothing more or less than Liberal. Mr. Jeffrey Could not, however, see that the Colonel claimed the credit of being a Reformer at all ; and so he answered but one half of the Colonel's letter. Back, therefore, games the Honourable Donald Ogilvy to the charge. He seems, by the by:, to have changed his mind since the Forfar meeting ; for he said then, the resolutions would speak for themselves, but now he is determined to speak for them. This rejoinder draws a long reply from the learned Lord ; in which, after reasoning for half a column on what he meant to say, he concludes—" It must therefore have been not only unjust, but Inconsistent in me, to have designated any of these gentlemen, upon Wituse friendliness to the cause of Reform in general I had been congra- tulating the audience, as absolutely hostile to that object. I can most truly assure you, therefore, that I made no such statement; and that it never entered into my imagination to insinuate any doubt as to the sincerity those declarations in favour of Reform which occur in the resolutions proposed at the Forfar meeting." Now, if the Lord Advocate really and truly believe that the professing gentlemen who, on various occa- sions in England and Scotland, in Parliament and out of it, have made general declarations of their attachment to Reform, while they yet op- posed the Reform, were sincere friends to any Reform, then has he a capacity of swallow that would absorb not a camel, but an elephant with a camel on his back. We know hardly any thing that is more calculated to bring official men into contempt, than that simplicity, rather than asurtesy, which dictates uncalled-for explanations to every foolish person who may take it into his head that he, forsooth, has occasion of com- plaint against them. The public are sick of such exhibitions of imper- tinent questions and childish answers. The Ministers and their friends won/d do well to act with more spirit, and vigour, and not permit every puny whipster of the Opposition to gratify his little vanity by a senspaper skirmish with them.
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