an, to know
distinctly, if Mr. Thompson had any right to demand, or if he (Mr. B.)
were bound to express his opinion of that individual. Because,
continued Mr. B., as I have in the beginning said that Mr. T. as an
individual could be nothing to me or my countrymen, I have preferred
to be silent as to him individually. If he is right, however, in
bringing such things as charges against me, and continues to demand
my opinion, I will give it fearlessly. But let him beware--for I will
call no man friend who gains his bread by calumniating my country. Nor
can he who traduces my bretheren--my kindred--my home--all that I most
venerate and revere--honor me so much as by traducing me. They had
been told that Mr. J. G. Birney had fled from Kentucky, and left his
wife and children behind him in great danger, he being obliged to flee
for his life. It was true, he believed, that Mr. Birney, excellent and
beloved as he was, had found it best to emigrate from that State. But
that he had _fled_, rested, he believed, on Mr. T's. naked assertion.
That he had left his wife and children behind, believing them to be in
personal danger, was a thing which it would require amazingly clear
proof to establish against the gentleman in question. But he would
show to the meeting that there was one individual who could do such an
act. (Mr. B. then read the following extract from a speech, delivered
at a meeting in Edinburgh, on the 28th of January, 1836:)

"He stood there not to defame America. It was true they had
persecuted him; but that was a small matter. It was true they
had hunted him like a partridge on the mountains; that he had
to lecture with the assassin's knife glancing before his
eyes; AND HIS WIFE AND HIS LITTLE ONES WERE IN DANGER OF
FALLING BY THE RUTHLESS HANDS OF MURDERERS."

And again, from the preface to the same pamphlet in which the above
cited speech is found, a pamphlet intended perhaps for America, and
called, "A Voice to her from the Metropolis of Scotland," the
following paragraph occurs:----

"Mr. Thompson having proceeded by way of St. John's, New
Brunswick, embarked on board of a British vessel for
Liverpool, where he arrived on the 4th of January, and on the
12th was happily joined by his family who had left New-York
on the 16th December.

So that it appeared from these statements that Mr. Thompson, believing
that the Americans meant to take away the lives of his wife a