s I was a-sayin', I want you to see these great men, as they
call 'em. Let's weigh 'em, and measure 'em, and handle 'em, and then
price 'em, and see what their market valy is. Don't consider 'em as
Tories, or Whigs, or Radicals; we hante got nothin' to do with none o'
them; but consider 'em as statesmen. It's pot-luck with 'em all; take
your fork as the pot biles up, jab it in, and fetch a feller up, see
whether he is beef, pork or mutton; partridge, rabbit or lobster;
what his name, grain and flavour is, and how you like him. Treat 'em
indifferent, and treat 'em independent.

"I don't care a chaw o' tobacky for the whole on 'em; and none on 'em
care a pinch o' snuff for you or any Hortentort of a colonist that ever
was or ever will be. Lord love you! if you was to write like Scott, and
map the human mind like Bacon, would it advance you a bit in prefarment?
Not it. They have done enough for the colonists, they have turned 'em
upside down, and given 'em responsible government? What more do the
rascals want? Do they ask to be made equal to us? No, look at their
social system, and their political system, and tell 'em your opinion
like a man. You have heard enough of their opinions of colonies, and
suffered enough from their erroneous ones too. You have had Durham
reports, and commissioners' reports, and parliament reports till your
stomach refuses any more on 'em. And what are they? a bundle of mistakes
and misconceptions, from beginnin' to eend. They have travelled by
stumblin', and have measured every thing by the length of their knee,
as they fell on the ground, as a milliner measures lace, by the bendin'
down of the forefinger--cuss 'em! Turn the tables on 'em. Report on
_them_, measure _them_, but take care to keep your feet though, don't be
caught trippin', don't make no mistakes.

"Then we'll go to the Lords' House--I don't mean to meetin' house,
though we must go there too, and hear Me Neil and Chalmers, and them
sort o' cattle; but I mean the house where the nobles meet, pick out
the big bugs, and see what sort o' stuff they are made of. Let's take
minister with us--he is a great judge of these things. I should like you
to hear his opinion; he knows every thin' a'most, though the ways of the
world bother him a little sometimes; but for valyin' a man, or stating
principles, or talkin' politics, there ain't no man equal to him,
hardly. He is a book, that's a fact; it's all there what you want; all
you've got to do