SCOTLAND.
We mentioned last week, that a deputation from the Edinburgh Liberals had gone to Brougham Hall for the purpose of inviting the noble owner to a public dinner in the Scottish capital. They carried with them and presented to Lord Brougham the following address. It was signed by the Lord Provost, Magistrates, most of the Town- Councillors of Edinburgh and Leith, and about two hundred leading Liberals of both places.
We, the undersigned inhabitants of Edinburgh, of various political denominations. but all agreeing in the great principle that the People arc entitled to good government, and, as the means of obtaining it, to be Hilly and freely represented in their own pecu- liar branch of the Legislature, the House of Commons, beg tespectfully and cordially to congratulate your I.vrdship upon your restoration to health, :red upon the near pros- pect of again directing your powerful and active mind to the aid of that c ruse to a hies so much or .■ our pul.lic life has been devoted, for the welfare of mankind ; and, as the best immediate mean, to so noble an end, the complete emancipation of the public press, and the rerortn and improvement of the educational and political instant Leis of Great Britain.
" Wu flatter oarselves, that if your health, so valuable to the country, shall not he en- dangered by the fatigue of travelling and of attending a public meeting, your Lordship will not deny the Liberal citizens of your native town--men of all ranks and profes- sions, who, unconnected with faction, have long felt the deepest interest in your public career—the high gratification of personally expressing their happiness at your restora- tion to health, the sentiments of confidence and esteem with which your eminent ser- vices to the cause of popular enlightenment and popular freedom have inspired them, and above all. the hopes which at this portentous crisis they place on your renewed exertions for the same great cause.
" That such an opportunity may speedily be afforded to the inhabitants of this city, and those Liberal individuals from the neighbourhood and the proviucial towns who participate in the same sentiments and hopes, we, for ourselves and the great body of our Liberal fellow citizens, respectfully request the honour of your Lordship's company to a public dinner iu Edinburgh.
" Your Lordship may differ with us on certain points, as we (amicably) differ among ourselves ; but while we agree in so many important measures, and especially in every one of those fundamental principles of political and social amelioration, which we be- lieve Lord Brougham to have quite as much at heart as any statesman whatever, we are persuaded that no trivial consideration will intervene to disappoint our hopes of your Lordship accepting the invitation we have the honour to send you; and that you will not hold aloof from Reformers who justly and warmly appreciate your long and eminent services to the common cause. We are prepared to welcome you upon that high and open ground where all lovers of freedom and of their country may frankly meet. We disclaim every mere party interest and factious motive ; but, looking to the threateniug aspect of public affairs, we feel that it is high time the nation were bestirring itself. We all alike demand justice to the Dissenters, justice to Ireland, and the speedy removal of those ascertained impediments which check the free working of the Reform Bill. We alike desire Law Reform and Short Parliaments; but, more than all, we caruestly demand the immediate adoption of such measures as may remove the present obstacles to good government and to sound and liberal legislation."
Lord Brougham ,leclined the invitation; for the reasons given in the
subjoined reply to the address.
"Brougham hall, 5th October 1836. " v Lord Provost and Gentlemen—As it is altogether impossible for me to express the.dings which your extraordinary kindness gives rise to, I should certainly not ma!, • the attempt, but that my silence might be misconstrued. I entreat you then to be assured, that upon neither of the memorable occasions when I had the gratification ofpersonally thanking my fellow citizens of Edinburgh for those signal marks of at- tacluneut which they were pleased to bestow, did I experience a higher degree of satis- faction than I do in the peculiar circumstances of the present moment ; and looking back to those former celebrations, I cannot more strongly describe what I now feel.
" Permit me to mid, that the hearty union of all the parties holding opinions friendly to Reform, greatly enhances in my eyes the value of the honour you have conferred on me ; for I regard it as an earnest of the further success which may in future reward our combined efforts on behalf of those principles to which, though doubtless with sheiks of difference in detail, we are all in the main sincerely attached. " You may judge, •'-en, how deeply I lament the necessity under which I find myself placed of declining so accept such an invitation. My health, which had been broken by the labours of the session in 1835, when the legislative proceedings of the year were crowded into six weeks, has now been restored. But I have resolved to avoid all risk or a relapse during the period which will most likely intervene before the recommence- ment of public business ; (and I had acted upon this determination in other instances before I had the honour of receiving your commands).
" I have thus one only way left of showing my gratitude for the confidence which you are pleased to repose in me. It is by persevering in the same course of conduct by which I have gained it ; by steadily pursuing what appears best fitted to promote the good of the community at large, without the least regard to any other interests whatever, and with the fixed resolution to resist all attempts, whether to dictate or ob- struct that course, let them come from what quarter they may. " In the reference which you apparently make to the necessity of mutual forbearance among Reformers, when they happen to differ, I entirely agree. I know we are of one mind upon the sacred and imprescriptible right of the People in all parts of the empire, of whatever classes, or Moms, or creeds, to the benefit of equal laws; and none of us can doubt the necessity of not merely repairing. but amending, and thug preserving and perpetuating our institutions, by every safe measure of improvement, and with all reasonable despatch. Nor do I in,the least despair of seeing differences of opinion as to the particulars lessen as we proceed, when the fatal consequences of die- unipti become more evident every day.
" Allow me further to thank you for the distinguished honour which you have con- ferred upon me, by sending a must respectable deputation of yuur body with this invi- tation.
The communications which I have had with them have, if possible, iucreased the pain which I feel In being obliged to refuse. " I have the honour to be, my Lord Provost and Gentlemen, with every sentiment of respect and esteem. sour faithful and obliged servant, 111101:(1114/1. " To the Right lion. the Lord Provost, Ediuburgh. The Provost of Leith, &c. &c. &c."
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