All the time he
kept both parties in good humour, because each expected to have him
their own at last. After stating many arguments in favour of what
appeared to him to be the advantages of the Union, he gave his vote
against it, because, he said, he had been convinced by what he had
heard in that House this night, that the Union was at this time
decidedly against the wishes of the great majority of men of sense
and property in the nation. He added that if he should be convinced
that the opinion of the country changed at the final discussion of
the question, his vote would be in its favour.
'One of the anti-Unionists, who happened not to know my father
personally, imagined from his accent, style, and manner of speaking,
that he was an Englishman, and accused the Government of having
brought a new member over from England, to impose him upon the
House, as an impartial country gentleman, who was to make a
pretence of liberality by giving a vote against the Union, while, by
arguing in its favour, he was to make converts for the measure. Many
on the Ministerial bench, who had still hopes that, on a future
occasion, Mr.
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