At a dinner given to the Mayor of Hull, by
members of the Com- mon Council and other leading Liberals of that town, on the 5th in- stant, the health of" Her Majesty's Ministers" was "very coldly re-
eeivcd, and only partially drunk • " but that of the Earl of Durham, "the hope of the Reformers of England," was enthusiastically cheered.
Colonel Thompson bee published a letter addressed to the " Secre. tary of the Working Men's Association " at Hull. The Colonel observes, that Lord Durham's return has " produced a conjuncture, in which it is necessary for every set of men in the habit of acting to- gether, to consider what course they shall pursue ;" and then proceeds to review the " antecedents of the case "—
" A dernatel for polal Reform had become irresistible in the British Islands. The Whigs offered themselves as guides, and were accepted. After allowing their plan of Reform to be sorely mnimed, they passed the remnant, such as it was. Their follow- etsconsented to admit the plea of weaknese, and rallied with a view of making them stronger allot her time. The Whig leaders got a seven.years• Parliament, under the understanding that Reform was to advance: and then they turned round upon their flollowere, and declared that in the concessions which had been taken for weakness, their object had been to strengthen the enemy ngainst furthar Reform. Not content with demising, they found an opportunity to attack. The stronghold of the friends of Reform, and by consequence the dread of its opponents, lay hl the power of the purse, or in Dud right of withholding the supplies till redress of grievances, which had hems established by the event of two civil stars, or it might be sai I, of three. In a distant colony, this power was in the fact of being appealed to, as Di, means of removing gross and notorious misgovernment, Neatly hostile to the interests of the colony and of the mother country. The Whig Ministers sass the opportunity of striking at two objects at once—of presersiug the nii,government of Canada, and trampling on England's boasted right of soppy, in the persons of the Canadians. They therefore initiated a znovement upon the people of Canaan, closely resembling that of Charles the Tenth upon the people of France. Like him, the commenced by turning out the troops in the streets to destroy printing presses; and when, unlike the case of Fratece, the re- eistanee was unsuccessfall, their agents proceeded to all the brutalities which are in store for those who fail in resisting the ins asion of arbitrary power. No horrible cir- cumstance 0ats omitted which could disgrace the British name, and mike you blush in the presence or a foreigner. The cold-blooded murder of prisoners under the forms of judicial proceedinss, %here Meninges should have stepped into the dock, anal the ac. coned have held the sword of law for treason ; the sacking of villages, the burning of churches with their inmates, the gloating over the (lead bodies of brave and honest citizens exposed to swine a.: the punishment for having attempted to defend themselves aud an against the outbreak of illegal power : all these thing, defended and adopted by the Minhters in their places in Parlianwnt, and by a libel on the milit ii y profess Mon declared tu be the common eveuts of Wile, gave dreadful intimation of what the fate of a people is. mho are not prepared to put down %%Rh a high hand the treason of their governors. Yolk know the outcry your suistocracy raise if a hedge of theirs is broken in the progress of any agitation among tlw people : here is a specimen of e hat is intended for you, if you resist the 111VaSiOn of the aristocracy and fail. Military men handle etch other very gently, as is their interest ; but it is inculcated on the solder, hy Ministers like ours, that when employed to put down your rights, he is to lay aside all feeliegs of is man, and never think of mercy but when the citizen is lucky enough to offer it himself."
Lord Durham went upon the " wicked errand " of the Whig Minis- ters : he went to " hush up the affair favourably for the guilty"_ Lord Durham went upon the " wicked errand " of the Whig Minis- ters : he went to " hush up the affair favourably for the guilty"_
" tie bas made himself art and part in what you and I consider as a wilful breach of the comtitotiou.(ir we bad one,) and has thereby established himself an accomplice after the fact. It is of no use to say he dial not exercise any volunteer cruelties of his 015 n. lie cent there to hold the garmeuts of those who were stoning the saints; and Sin did hold them. Th biking so, t hen, let us have no relloaship ith such an unfruitful work of darkness. Let us come out from among those who will consent tonal' them- 'elves to such a league, for the sake of some advantage, private or political, they are ettlieetillgt011ertVe. it is quite true, that we cannot refuse good from whatever source. But let us be perfectly sure (list it is good ; let us be certain that there is no hook beneath, and at all events be in no berry to swallow the proffered boon. The same 'leader deeply disappointed expectation before Ids passage to Canada: how do we know but lie is put forward to disappoint it again, as a kind or Whig savemll, a pre- renler delusion, a fraud provisional, intended to hold when the other gives way, sun so worm us out of the right for which our fathers shut their gates on kings? " Do yam not see, that if the Tories give us any thing, we should have the good of it, and no renunciation of any right implied in return? But if we accept of any sop from It Durham Administration, we surrender the Right of Supply ; and to lead us to this surrender is of the very essence or the offer. It is like a country girl accepting presents from the squire of the perish ; the thing is dangerous from him, which would be harmless from her grandmother. I therefore, for one 6110111(1 much prefer taking any thing from the band which gave us Catholic Emancipation, to accepting the same thing from Lord Durham with such a drawback as has been mentioned."
Reverting to "an older subject," Colonel Thompson advised his Hull friends not to give their enemies an advantage by "unnecessarily talking about fighting "—
" it they should open on you in defiance of the law as they did in Canada, (which I think they dare not,) you must defetul yourselves as you best can ; and the mere fact of your having been so attacked, will be a tower of strength to you. But you are in no ((munition to itisite an attack in wantonness. Recollect that you would be engaged with an enemy. the most merciless the world could produce. Act as men do with the tiger; never chafe him, without being morally certain of what you intend to do with him next. Besides, the Irish brigade has deserted you: it may be the fault of leaders or not, but so the thing is. The moment the time for exertion approached, the Irish leaders made terms for themselt es. They virtually went to the Whig Government and said, 'And what will ye give us, and we leave the Canadians anal the English Radi- cals? Good quarters for Ireland, and we are your men.' And then they ludicrously turned round on us and said, • If you only knew how important tons these same snug quarters are, you could not be. friends to Ireland if you did not thank us for leaving you.' The same leaders, though their lives have been one lung threat,—though in the same breath they appeal to the tens of thousands of military age in Tipperary, and thrust the thousands of fighting men in Limerick into the Queen's face under the guise of a petition, and all this in the plenitude of their choice as absolute directors of them- selves, yet declare they abandon you because halividuals iti your ranks have uttered rush words on the subject of physical force. Your Irish friends are merry ; and when they have haul their game, they will come back with a broad smile on their counts.- stances, and expect sou to be all friends as before. And so, I suppose, it must be; only. the next time, do not think of assisting the Irish, till you see them too for engaged to draw back. Intimate to (Heeds on that side of the water, that they are expected to take the first line. Short accounts make long reckonings. There is no use in serving the enemy because you have been ill-treated ; nor in letting it be supposed you are so stupid as not to understriul it, either. But you must not fight if you can help it ; you must turn politicians for good. You must read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest ; and you will arrive at a time, when you will get what you want without fighting:, The Hull Saturday Journal, the paper to which Colonel Thompson sent his letter, as the organ of the working classes, published in the same number a commentary on the part of it which related to Lord Durham- " We are at all times ready to give credit to Colonel Thompson fq political honesty, and for the sagacity he ever evinces in public matters; but we cabnot help thinking that he has out used that foresight in the letter now under notice. which we have gene. rally found to characterize him. We do most decidedly and earnestly disagree with that part of Colonel Thompson's letter, which, by confounding Lord Durham as a particept eriminis with the Ministry in the attack upon Canadian freedom, would induce the Radicals of England to put Ito confidence in him, and its which he urges them to • come out from those who will consent to join themselves to such a league for the sake of some advantage, private or political, they are expecting to derive.' • • • Load Durham's proceedings in Canada, upon the face of them, go to negative the as. sertious of Colonel Thompson. Where is the blood he has spilt—where the injury he has committed? True, lie banished men without trial; but that was at their own desire, and to avoid shedding of blood. Lord Durham himself says with conscious pride—• I have not found it necessary to shed one drop of blood, or to confiscate the property of a single individual.' The truth appears to us to be, that Lord Durham has acted oot only with mercy, but with the greatest prudence. He has steered clear between two parties, each desiring blood. • • • But there is another and a most important aspect under which we are to regard Lord Durham. We look for measures of Reform, and we seek a leader whose character and influence amongst bissountrymen hasuch as to induce us to place confidence in him as our champion. We have not now, wa Colonel Thompson has himself observed, to quarrel is Ii,) shall lead, but to have somebody who shall lead the People's way.' We have to seek a man worthy the confidence uf his countrymen, who has before given proofs that he Is in earnest in his :attachment to lleform, and who is of suflicient pot tance to raise as party which shall at once enable us to take a good step onwards. Such a leader we find in Lord Durham. We will be sure that those measures We pose to attain under his guidance are good. Will not Colonel Thompson say the ballot, Short Parliaments, and llouseliold Suffrage, are each and all goon ? Is this the boos we should not nccept? for what hook is there beneath this by which the people would be caught? Colonel Thompson has several times taught us forbearance and modera. Con. We treasure his counsel ; and when he prefers taking a boon trim the hand of Wellington to acceptiug the same thing Irum Lord Durham. an reply in his own %oat, alien lie warned the working classes, on the occasion of the defeat on the Ballot is 1837, against 'listening to the Tory trumpets in their rear instead of their tried leaders in the flout. and moving upon every point where discomfiture and loss to the general cause is must likely to intuit them.' "
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