THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER AND HIS CRITICS.
pro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—May a Welsh Unionist shy in your impartial columns a word upon the critics of the Chancellor of the Exchequer P Granted that Mr. Lloyd George is politically in error, his -opponents are not altogether happy in their attempts to establish this fact. Why sneer at him because he is a Welshman? One of the ablest Unionist workers in Wales said in public that Lord George Hamilton's sneer at "the little Welsh attorney" cost the Unionist Party in Wales a large measure of popular support. This week a literary correspondent writes to the Times about "our Welsh statesman-philosopher," and criticises "the dreary clap-trap, the maximum of misrepresentation under the cloak of a non- party speech in a place of worship, incitements to spoliation accompanied by a certain amount of prayerful twang, Limehouse through the nose, preceded by prayer," &c. ; and as if to make the criticism complete, this gentleman very clearly imputes insincerity to Mr. Lloyd George in his pleadings for the poor. I offer no comment upon these things, but it may be permitted to a Welshman, who is even proud of being a Welshman, to question the wisdom—I say nothing about the fairness or courtesy—of writing and saying these things in England. These gentlemen dare not say them in Wales. After all, nothing is gained by insulting even a small nation like the Welsh.—I am, Sir, &c., A CELT.
[We most heartily concur. Mr. Lloyd George has every right to be proud of being a Welshman, and we applaud his local patriotism,—local patriotism, if properly understood, is seen to be the cradle of the higher and wider love of country. But though we deplore attacks on Wales and the Welsh, we must not forget that the English are in this respect by no means the chief sinners. Welsh attacks on England and her people are no doubt as a rule concealed by the vernacular, but that does not make them the less virulent.— En. Spectator.]
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