SCOTLAND.
A dinner in honour of Mr. Douglae, of Adderstone, for his ser- vices as a friend of Reform in the Border counties, was given to that gentleman on the :Id, by the new constituency of the Melrose district. Above two hundred freeholders and other friends were present ; Sir David Erskine, of Dryburgh, in the chair. The meeting acquired additional interest from the arrival of Lord Durham, on his return from Glasgow, just as the company were sittiug down to dimmer; his Lordship being on the instant invited to join the party, accepted the invitation, and spent some hours in the heart of the Border Re- formers. There were deputations from Jedburgh, Kelso, Selkirk, Galashi:ls, Rec.
Lord Durham, when his health was drunk, delivered an animated arid cheering speech ; of which the following report has appeared-
" Gentlemen, when I arrived in this town' I was not aware that it would fall to my lot to have the honour of meeting sucha numercrai and highly-respectable assembly as tam. I have received at Lanark the freedom of that burgh; at Biggar and Peebles I received addresses; but at Mehose I expecied only that I should have the pleasure of visiting those venerable ruins which adorn the place, Pad admire the beauty of the adjacent scenery. Iliad not any notion that when I accepted the unexpected invitation tendered to me by your worthy Chairman, which I did at very great personal inconvenience, I would have had the honour Of meeting the worthy and independeut Reformers of this district. Gentlemen. at any time I would have sacrificed my own conveniecce to have the pleasure of meeting such a hand of Reformers; and be assured that I shall ren her any assistance in my power to pit mote the good and welfare of the laople, both in England and Scotland ; but I do SO with still gieater pleasure when you are assembled to pay just hmour and respect to a calunmiated Reformer. And I trust, gentlemen, this meeting will pruve to him, what the people arc ever ready to prove, that if any individual is attacked on their ac- count, they will come forward to his rescue. Mr. Douglas has told you that he has been calumniated by our common enemy. Well, gentlemen, is he any thing the worse for it? 1 have been calumniated and misrepresented for twenty years; and I don't feel any thing the worse for it. On the contrary, I know, the more that abuse is heaped on one, the more certain I am that I am a bitter thou,: in the side of our enemies, and the more certain is the fact that I miner rendering a service to the cause of liberty and independence. Let,
therefore, your honourable guest take consolation from my experience. He
has net seen so much of public life as I have done. Instead, therefore, of COM.. phining of the calumny and vituperation with which he has been assailed by
his eaemies, be ought to thank Providence that he has been singled out as the objet of their attacks. But it cannot be presumed that I mu sufficiently versed in local politics to know the course of events described, which have been going on in this country ; and I make no doubt many such do exist. I beg him and you to recollect, that the:lays are quite changed when such practices can be allowed to exist. There is a tribunal before which an appeal must be ulti- mately succesecul ; and if any such practices do ca.,: place, if your Repre- sentath-es poss as your confidence—and I cannot doubt but they do—you
have only to male your complaiat through Item to the House of Commons, and depend upon it they must be reversed. The all. conquering power of Public Opinion, the mighty power of the Press, and the power of Jostle", is on your side: with these three combined, success is inevitable : while this three-ply cold remains, how is it possible for the machinations of your enemies to be successful? (Applause. ) I tell you, gentlemen, it is as impossible, as if that celebrated Wizard, of whom we have heard and read in the pages of the mighty Minstrel, of having divided these hills which overhang the town—I pay, it would be as impossible for Michael Scott, that renowned Wizard, to reunite these hills, as it would be for any other Scott of the present day to overturn the principles of Liberty and restore the mign of Toryism. 1 know very well, gentlemen, you will have enough to Jo before you gain your puiut. I know well that all the agency of power and wealth have been and will be employed against you ; and that all the influence that can attach to an excellent private character—for there are many Tories to whom that attribute belongs—will be used to defeat your object ; but still remember, you have on your side the great, the essential, and the all.conqueling arm of Justice; and, backed by the remonstrances of the people, you will be sure to gain a victory, aye, as sure as that the light of to-morrow shall dispel the darkuese of to night. This is the first occasion that is presented to me since I have quitted the councils of his alajeaty of meeting any of my fellow-subjects in these districts, so justly celebrated : and although these difficulties which you have to contend against have occurred, yet I hope arid trust that we have, iu granting to the people of this country their just rights and privileges, at least conferred some benefit : and that if you have these difficulties to encounter, you must recollect that at this moment you are not iu that degraded state of political subserviency when Parliamentary representa- tion was a mere mockery. It surely is sonic consolation to know, that you are now freed from quit disgrace which attaches to those proceedings, and that you have the certain prospect of a remedy should the boon conferral upon you be in- sufficient. If at any time in my place in Parlianaeat I can be of service to the advancement of your interests—if at any time my humble services can be useful to your cause—you may command them, as every one cf your countiyawn may do at all times."
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