In truth, Sir Alexander King, with his wild and foolish
assertion that " the whole article is meant to suggest that somewhere or other, perhaps in my person, there was cor- ruption," and with his talk of " nasty suggestions," is simply applying a device common to honest but careless servants when they are reproved for an act of carelessness. The butler who knows that he is in the wrong, when told he ought not to have left the cellar key lying about, always tries to shelter himself by angrily declaring that he is being accused of theft and drunkenness, and that the accusation is false and that there never was a more sober and honest man, &c., &c. No one has accused Sir Alexander King of dis- honesty, but it has been said in the Spectator that he has laid down principles for making bargains with commercial firms by which not only will the public interest suffer, but which in the end will let in corruption. In reply he vehemently protests that he is being accused of stealing, and that he will not endure such "nasty" suggestions. To this we reply that he is mistaken, or pretending to be mistaken, in order to evade the true issue, and that we have made no charge of corruption whatever.
Previous page
