[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You remark in an
article entitled, "Government and Money," which appears in the Spectator bearing date October
4th, that the handling of the revived Marconi controversy by our present Chancellor of the Exchequer is most injudicious.
His method of handling it was described by Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1750. I quote some sentences from the Rambler of December 8th of that year. I know not that they will provide a lenitive to the Chancellor of the Exchequer under his present troubles, which he has been discussing with Lords Wohner, Selborne, and Salisbury. Still, Sir, to a rising generation it may be not unimportant, in selecting a guide towards an advance in the virtues of public and private life, to compare what the stout old English moralist says with the speeches and letters of Mr. Lloyd George. Thus the Rambler:— "Men often extenuate their own guilt only by vague and general charges upon others, or endeavour to gain rest to them- selves by pointing some other prey to the pursuit of censure. Every whisper of infamy is industriously circulated, every hint of suspicion eagerly improved, and every failure of conduct joyfully published by those whose interest it is that the eye and voice of the public should be employed on any rather than on themselves. It may be observed, perhaps without exception, that none are so industrious to detect wickedness, or so ready to impute it, as they whose crimes are apparent and confessed. They envy an unblemished reputation, and what they envy they are busy to destroy ; they are unwilling to consider themselves meaner and more corrupt than others, and therefore willingly pall down from their elevations those with whom they cannot rise to an equality. No man ever yet was wicked without secret discontent, and according to the different degrees of remaining virtue or unextin- guished reason, he either endeavours to reform himself or corrupt others; either to regain the station which he has quitted, or prevail on others to imitate his defection."
Boxburghshire. MORALIST FROM SCOTLAND.
Previous page
