A PICKWICKIA.N SOCIALIST.
[To THE EDITC:R OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIE,—May I point out a ctaracteristic of the late Mr. Charles Villiers to which your 4bitnary notice of him makes no reference? His conversa,cion was, at any rate towards the end -of his life, marked by a m9rdant humour, or let me rather say by what Walter Bagehot would have called "a pleasant • cynicism,"—a quality which many excellent persons (especially ladies) fail to 'Zinderstand, but which is often at once a disguise and a partial remedy for excessive sensibility. A queer anecdote, which he told my father many years ago, may amuse your readers.. It must be reproduced (so to say) with unorthographic exactness. Half its point would be lost if it were translated into, the Queen's English. Mr. Villiers had been asking a Radical elector to support him. " Yes ; I'll support you. But, Willars, we must have a diwision of property !"—" Certainly," replied the diplomatic candidate, -"I should be quite in favour of such a measure. But I am afraid that if property is divided there will not be enough for you and me and the rest of us." After a momentary embarrassment, the cheerful and resourceful Socialist hit on a remedy : "Why, then, Willars, we must diwide again! "—I
Hotel d'Angleterre, Biarritz, January 28th.
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