s terms.

FIFTH NIGHT--FRIDAY, JUNE 17.

MR. BRECKINRIDGE said that the order of the exercises of this evening
had, without the fault of any one, placed him in a position which was
not the most natural. Considering that it was his duty to support the
negative of the point for this evening's discussion, it would have
been most natural had the affirmation been first brought out. He said
this arrangement was not the fault of any one, because it was not
known that the point would fall to be discussed on this particular
evening; for had it fallen on last night or to-morrow night, the order
would have been as it ought to be. His position was, however, made
somewhat better by the fact, that nothing that Mr. Thompson could say
this evening, in an hour or two, could alter the assertions which he
had already repeatedly made and published in Britain. Since the notice
of this discussion had been published, he had, through the providence
of God, been put in possession of six or seven papers and pamphlets
containing the substance of what had been said by Mr. Thompson
throughout the country, and reiterated by associated bodies of his
friends under his eye. After reading these carefully, he found himself
pretty fully possessed of that individual's charges and testimony
against the ministers, private Christians, and churches of America; he
would, therefore, take them as he found them in those publications,
while Mr. Thompson's presence would enable him to explain, correct, or
deny anything that might be erroneously stated. The first thing he
should attempt to do, was to impeach the competency of Mr. Thompson as
a witness in this or any similar case. Mr. Thompson had shown that he
was utterly incompetent, wisely to gather and faithfully to report
testimony on any subject involving great and complicated principles.
He did not wish to say anything personally offensive to Mr. Thompson;
but he must be plain, and he would first produce proof of what he
said, which was as it regarded this whole nation perfectly _ad
hominem_. He would show the audience what Mr. Thompson had said of
them, and then they would better judge what was his competency to be a
witness against the Americans. At a meeting in the Hopeton Rooms at
Edinburgh, since his return from the United States, Mr. Thompson said:

We were really under a worse bondage than the slaves of the
United States. We kissed our chains and hugged our fetters.
We were governe