Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/89



"associations, wherever they find it to be for their convenience."

General Thompson's Political Letters—particularly those addressed to the Secretary of the Hull Reform Association, and one addressed to the Secretary of the Hull Working Men's Association remind me more of Swift's "Drapier's Letters" than any letters that I am acquainted with. Whether or not can be said of General Thompson what has recently been said of Swift with reference to the Drapers', or as Swift chose to spell it Drapier's, letters that they demonstrate his tact and sagacity as a political leader; they are free from the monstrous exaggeration and sophistry of Swift. They are also specimens of pure and idiomatic English, and of eloquence perfectly natural and unadorned—as natural as that of Mr. O'Connel, which I once heard an eminent member of Parliament describe as the sort of speaking which a man might address to his soldiers on the best practicable