A QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 55, 6 March 1868, Page 3

A QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER.

That ruthless periodical tire" Tomahawk, in an article headed *A National Weakness,' app ais to the public at large lo answer the following questions : — Why do we welcome nil the ruffians in Euiope lo our shores and give our moral support to revolution, uo matter iu what shape it break oui, all over the world, aud preach constitutional obedience and what not at home, to the mystification of Kurope in general and to the stultification of ouratdv s in particular 'i Why do we turn out a fleet off Portsmouth, that any seeond-class naval power in the world can blow out of the water in 10 iniuutes, and then get up on our stilts again over the supremacy of England ? What do we mean by expressing sympathy with the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian wheu throughout the whole of his Mexican career we have, almost to a man, rejoived snugly but verily over every liberal success that wus bringing the bullet nearer to his heart ? Why do wo, while boasting lobe fi tends of order, do something more lhan express sympathy with Greece, in its dL-repufable Cretan quarrel, and denounce ihe Turkish Government, when the latter i- unquestionably in the right, and pursuing precisely the same path that any European powei would pursue uuder siinil.ir circumstances? Why are we pointing with our Phapsical pride to what we teim the 'ignorance and bigotry of the Contiueut,' when the vast majority of our poor town population aud a large minority of that of our counties, is about the mo&t, miserable and " degraded iu the so-called civilised world? And with all this under one's eyes, why do we talk big things of our charity, and maintain our workhouse system to enable us to practise it ? Iu a word, why are we eternally boasting ahout our anomalies, blundering in our logic, und denouncing, the while, all our neighbors ns fools? Can any of the moral isers help us? Say, what is ut the bottom of ic all ? SSuobbism. Snobbism our great national failing? Nothing of the sort! We are magnificent snobs in our way — nobody will deny that — but humbug is our forte. We are the biggest, humbugs in the world. We are jdoc offensive humbugs. We do not attempt to humbug others, for our business is purely with ourselves. We are our own victims, and too utterly so to admit of any wilful attempt to victimise our neigh Dor?. If we do raise the dust, it is for the honest, straightforward purpose of sending it a, I into our owu eyes. If lookers-ou suffer, it is thoir fiault. We rake no account of them ; our object is to blind ourselves, and we do it most effectively. Yes — without any express purpose of being dishouesl, Englishmen are the biggest humbugs iu the world.