scale very pointedly: "I am sick of sliding scales, and all scales. There is a man of the name of Smith who has been robbing the country of bills to the amount of some 500,000 in the course of five years,—would you receive a proposition from him to the effect, that, as the way in which he has been accustomed to live is expensive, you must not think of reducing his income—all at once that he will be satisfied with a fixed income at the rate of 100,000 in five years for the future?(Cheers and laughter.) If these laws are what I have described them to be,—as honest men, as Christians, we can enter into no compromise. We demand complete justice—we can give our consent to nothing short of this."
The Rev. Mr. Marshall, of Coupar–Angus, the Rev. James R. M'Gavin, of Dundee, the Rev. Mr. Lowe, of Forfar,and the Rev. J. Kennedy, of Aberdeen, argued the religious and moral bearings of the question with great ability. The latter, in recommending union amongst the friends of humanity and civil liberty, said: "I would say to the chartist (and I trust, sir, it will not be considered treason to mention this word in this meeting), I would say to the chartist: Go on, nor rest till you have gained your object—till the suffrage is as universal as the present suffering, with the exception of the crime it has produced—(hear, hear)—and, as time rolls, you will find the friends of your cause increase, as a conviction of its justice breaks in upon the mind. But, oh, I would beg of the chartist, by the humanity that beats in his bosom, by the tide of parental affection that flows through his heart, not to protract his own and his family's sufferings by withholding his aid from the present vigorous movement which is now in progress, for bread to the hungry and prosperity to our languishing country. (Cheers.) Union in this may bring about union in other things; and, if this is accomplished, the scorpion sting is extracted from oppression, and the smile of prosperity will begin to gladden the land."
