le, who was actually on
his feet, to perform the office for me, when the sound of "Mr.
Chairman," from a different part of the church, anticipated him. Looking
round, I recognised at once the face of the intelligent mechanic, named
Hall, whom we had met at Mooseridge, on our way to the Nest. I took my
seat, at once, perfectly satisfied that the subject was in good hands.

This speaker commenced with great moderation, both of manner and tone,
and, indeed, he preserved them throughout. His utterance, accent and
language, of course, were all tinctured by his habits and associations;
but his good sense and his good principles were equally gifts from
above. More of the "true image of his maker" was to be found in that one
individual than existed in fifty common men. He saw clearly, spoke
clearly, and demonstrated effectively. As he was well known in that
vicinity and generally respected, he was listened to with profound
attention, and spoke like a man who stood in no dread of tar and
feathers. Had the same sentiments been delivered by one in a fine coat,
and a stranger, or even by myself, who had so much at stake, very many
of them would have been incontinently set down as aristocratic, and not
to be tolerated, the most sublimated lover of equality occasionally
falling into these little contradictions.

Hall commenced by reminding the audience that they all knew him, and
knew he was no landlord. He was a mechanic, and a labouring man, like
most of themselves, and had no interest that could be separate from the
general good of society. This opening was a little homage to prejudice,
since reason is reason, and right right, let them come whence they will.
"I, too, am a democrat," he went on to say, "but I do not understand
democracy to mean anything like that which has been described by the
last speaker. I tell that gentleman plainly, that if he is a democrat, I
am none; and if I am a democrat, he is none. By democracy I understand a
government in which the sovereign power resides in the body of the
nation; and not in a few, or in one. But this principle no more gives
the body of the people authority to act wrong, than in a monarchy, in
which the sovereign power resides in one man, that one man has a right
to act wrong. By equality, I do not understand anything more than
equality before the law--now, if the law had said that when the late
Malbone Littlepage died, his farms should go not to his next of kin, or
to his devisee, b