The following correspondence has passed bete een Lord Brougham and
Mr. 'I'ait, the publisher ; who had addressed his Lordship on the part of some of his political friends
" Edinburgh, 3.1 September 1838.
"My Lord-Yon wottld greatly oblige a number of the Reformers of this city and other parts of Scotland, by lett Mg us know whether we may believe the eeport which has appeared in the neespapers„ that your Lordship intends to visit Scotland this autumn. " Two of the other three citizens who composed the deputation to Brougham hail two years ago, join me in this request for information. Ihe fourth I have not hap- pened to see for several days.
" I am, my Lord, your Lordship's very obedient servant,
.'Lord Brougham, &c. &c. " W. TAIT."
" Brougham hull. 5th September 1839. " Sir-In answer to the ingniries of you end those other friends whom I hall the great pleasure of seethe here two years ago. I have to state that the supposition of my having determined to visit Scotlnnd tht nittumn was founded eit a misapprehension. " At one time I thought it probable that I should be obliged to attend at ceremony in one of the Northern Universities. But 1 know from the experience of 1834 how very difficult it would be (with every disposition I might have and every precaution I might take) to avoid attending political meetings if I went there. I hive° ttone my endeavour to avoid going there at ell this season. and I trust I have succeeded. " It may be risked why I have so strong it dislike to attend political assemblies, espe- cially during the recess of Parliament ; or rather why I do not overcome thnt disincli- nation for the advancement of my political printiples. My answer is. that I should now, us I occesionally have done before, lay my own inclinations out of the question, if I really coulul tw eonvitwed that any good would result from my undergoing it great personal inconvenience. Het I am sure that more advantage will follow from couliniug my exertions in behalf of those principles to my place in Patliameut, where I am always to be found. " Let sot our friends, the friends of Reform and improvement, imagine that I conceive the present to be a time when their must strenuous exertions can be dispensed with. It is now clear, if soy thing can be clear, that for further improvement in their condi- tion, the people midst look to their own &torte. The folly of those who suffer them- selves to be lulled into inaction by the necident of a friendly court-or rather a court not hostile-can only be eqtaalled by the knavery of those who attempt to practise the delusion. It lea good teatime which a thousand chances may at any tnomeut reverse, and leave them bitterly to lament that they have refused to awake and take head • while it is called to day.' And with all this temporary advantage, what has been gained ? They bid us look to Ireland. Look, then, to Ireland. First, a Poorlaw was imposed on that country. to the universal dismay of its inhabitants. without distinc- tion of rank, party. or sect. Then a faint resistance to changes made in the Corpora. tion Bill was followed by some kind of alarm that some kind of mischief might come to some people if the bill was accepted as altered; so that measure was lost altogether. An unqualified submission, however, to the same power which had dictated those Cot- poratiou Bill changes, was made when the great 'lithe measure came on the carpet. Against all ' gages and pledges,' the only one met it the bill ever could boast, the Appro- priation, was abandoned by those who had taken office on the ground of that provision being indispensably necessary ; and a new prop wns purchased for the Irish Church at the heavy cost of the people of this couutry ; while some of those who made us pay for it avowed that wo were only throwin,g good money after bad. for nothing could save the building from tumbling down l Thus there would be no great satisfaction in going to tell the people of Scotland how little they had gained under the new dispensation, and little good in warning them agaiust ever iignin cheriehiug those hopes that but lead to disappointment.
" Accidental circumstances have lately given me occasion to reconsider, very delibe- rately. the political opinions with which I entered upon Public life thirty years ago, and which have ever since sleek by me so inconveniently to some other folks, t hid I seem to Rive the snme kind of uneasiness to them that a good lookiug glass does to a superaunuated beauty-with this material difference, however, that the beauty bas only to ecense time for the change, and not herself, and that shut may break the mirror, or at least turn away her head from the sight us herpes this operat ion is not found to be so easy when allenipted (as indeed it has been) upon the glass which is now held up to certain leaders of the Liberal party. " But bas time and tuxperience and reflection proditeed no change in my own opi. nions? In some small measitre it has. The opinions renotin substantially the same; but I cling more by them as I grow older, and I carry them somewhat further, from longer trial of their quality. I feel more deeply than ever the necessity of the people exerting themselves to work out their own political regeneration. I arm more convinced than ever that they may safely he intrusted with political power. inasmula as they tyre Mow far better qualified to Ilse it. I am thoroughly persuaded, that without they will never have any security for good and cheap government ; and I think the time is come when they mnst prove traitors to themselves, and cannot be seri etl or saved by any
man, unless they show a firm uleterminati to think for themselves, and allow :touters party combinatioes or mere party leader, to make and to dictate their opinions. Goon.
SW, WHOLIESOME 00VISIINNYNT CONSISTS IN ALL INTEI.I.I0ENT TERSONS OF TOE COM- MUNITY HAYING • DIRECT SHARP. IN THIC ADMINtsTRATION OP ITS POWERS; AND AN ORDINARY IDUCATtoN is Al.!. THAT CAN so HUCLUIRSD Ton OivING HEN suirricIENT 3NTELLIOP:NCE TO DisCHAnen Tuts nscote-T DUTY AND EXERCISE Tills HOST SAcEtsb SIGHT. My firm belief is, that the domestic peace and good order of a country will be always better preserved-that its foreign affairs will always be more steadily adminis- tered-that the two first blessings of the political state, the very end and object of all polity, I mean peace at home and abroad, will be most certainly maintained-in the country whose government is founded upon the most extensive, that is, the most pis. polar base. We are fur enough frets that at prewut ; and accordingly we are in the East pelting down and setting tip princes, null extorting subsidiary treaties front our royal pumwts: in the West ',aiming wholesele bills of atteititier against persons iu their absence, and without even any 110liCO; awl every where keeping op costly settleineuts for the sake of the patroitage they bestow ; while at keine we have had the public bur dens nearly stationary for these twenty years or peace, anti find it close union of both the great regular parties in the state to support the laws Itsus hich breed is made dear, the trade in all corn butt our own extinguished. usual the foreign inerkets closed against the produce of our inatinStetories. Mark, too, in passitig. the evil effects-the gross, and even thlienlous aticonsisteucies-of the party principle, when abuse.% which iii its jest uses is SO IIIVOUTallio. to popular rights and so great a Shield against oppression. In 1820, I had the hearty support of the regttler Whig partisans (we being all then in Opposition) against the very worst act the Tories ever till, their bill for keephig the Queen out IN her adopted country, to please the King. all' witlIntdstieddi mug her 1)1,0 of course; but the Tory bill was not made beide I the Queen's bark. We were heard for two months against it, :HO we defeated it. Yet those same Whig l' inane to please a viceroy's blutolering emitted. (for I am sure it con be no nteastire or his own,) defend a bill, passed in two hour., for the ettainder of eixteen men wholly tutu- aware' of the measure, and whom it is towelled only to keep out of dier native country, • without sheddilig their blood,' or Mast:, —It t,jh described by one of its authors. w ills. Out exaggeration, as 'an act of horrible Hustle,. en I despotism.'
" When Parliament meets we shall see whether or not the same resistance to all Reform will continue to be offered, by which the opening of the last session was SO remarkably distinguished from all its predecessors. If the interval shall be employed by the people in calmly but firmly tasking their sentiments usual their tletermluatiob known to their representatives, better things have beets effected theta were at first granted for our fellow subjects in the colouies, by the force of public opinion ahme. If
the people show themselves indifferent to ts 11.It utmost concerns them, Oleo another exhibitiou will be made of the mere game of parties, which was well euough suited to a emitter state of Ode" and did occasionally two.ice to the country, but a hich, iii the present day. cam have no tither elr et than to defratid the natiou of its just right', and Sum suspend the pnatress of public improvement. With my beet respects to the otlwr gentlemen. I ISAYD the houour to be, Sir, your faithful and obedient servant, " P.S. I trust that nothing in this letter will lead you to suppose that I mushier the people bound to be still and inset Ire upon practical questi ,,,, Sof great moment. 'etch use
the Corn laws, the Irish Chinch, or popular ethic:Woe, because they nre deprived of their just share in the representation. That by no means follows. They may do great good in keeping their representatives right, oven under the present defective system."
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