“‘If such are your views,’ I said, ‘I must say, I do not understand that absurd act of firing your parliament house. It is, I assure you, reprobated everywhere. Our folks say your party commenced as old Hunkers1 and ended as Barnburners.’
1 “We have been requested to give a definition of this term, ‘Old Hunkers.’ Party nicknames are not often logically justified; and we can only say that that section of the late dominant party in this State (the democratic) which claims to be the more radical, progressive, reformatory, &c., bestowed the appellation of ‘Old Hunker’ on the other section, to indicate that it was distinguished by opposite qualities from those claimed for itself. We believe the title was also intended to indicate that those on whom it was conferred had an appetite for a large ‘hunk’ of the spoils, though we never could discover that they were peculiar in that. On the other hand, the opposite school was termed ‘Barnburners,’ in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman, who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns, which they infested—just like exterminating all banks and corporations to root out the abuses connected therewith. The fitness or unfitness of these family terms of endearment is none of our business.”—NEW YORK TRIBUNE.
“That remark threw him off his guard; he rose up greatly agitated; his eyes flashed fire, and he extended out his arm as if he intended by gesticulation to give full force to what he was about to say. He stood in this attitude for a moment without uttering a word, when by a sudden effort he mastered himself, and took up his hat to walk out on the terrace and recover his composure.
“As he reached the door, he turned, and said:
“‘The assenting to that infamous indemnity act, Mr Slick, and the still more disreputable manner in which it received the gubernational sanction, has produced an impression in Canada that no loyal man—’ but he again checked himself, and left the sentence unfinished.
“I was sorry I had pushed him so hard, but the way he tried to evade the subject at first, the bitterness of his tone, and the excitement into which the allusion threw him, convinced me that the English neither know who their real friends in Canada are, nor how to retain their affections.
“When he returned, I said to him, ‘I was only jesting about your having no grievances in Canada, and I regret having agitated you. I agree with you however that it is of no use to remonstrate with the English public. They won’t listen to you. If you want to be heard, attract their attention, in the first instance, by talking of their own immediate concerns, and while they are regarding you with intense interest and anxiety, by a sleight of hand shift the dissolving view, and substitute a sketch of your own. For instance, says you, ‘How is it the army in the Crimea had no tents in the autumn, and no huts in the winter—the hospitals no fittings, and the doctors no nurses or medicines? How is it disease and neglect have killed more men than the enemy? Why is England the laughing-stock of Russia, and the butt of French and Yankee ridicule? and how does it happen this country is filled with grief and humiliation from one end of it to the other? I will tell you. These affairs were managed by a branch of the Colonial Office. The minister for that department said to the army, as he did to the distant provinces, ‘Manage your own affairs, and don’t bother us.’ Then pause and say, slowly and emphatically, ‘You now have a taste of what we have endured in the colonies. The same incompetency has ruled over both.’”
“‘Good heavens,’ said he, ‘Mr Slick. I wish you was one of us.’
“‘Thank you for the compliment.’ sais I. ‘I feel flattered, I assure you; but, excuse me. I have no such ambition. I am content to be a humble Yankee clockmaker. A Colonial Office, in which there is not a single man that ever saw a colony, is not exactly the government to suit me. The moment I found my master knew less than I did, I quit his school and set up for myself.’
‘Yes, my friend, the English want to have the mirror held up to them; but that is your business and not mine. It would be out of place for me. I am a Yankee, and politics are not my line; I have no turn for them, and I don’t think I have the requisite knowledge of the subject for discussing it; but you have both, and I wonder you don’t.