ENGLISH SNOBS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 926, 13 February 1872, Page 3

ENGLISH SNOBS.

(From the " Liberal Eeview.") The snob never thinks of according anytEing but contemptuous indifference to those whom he considers are the least bit below him in the social scale. It is just possible that he may condescend to take some slight notice of such a one under peculiar circumstances, but then ho does not object to cut him when it suits his purpose to do so. He may know b'iui perhaps when he meets him upon a dark night, but only regards him with a contemptuous stare in the broad daylight. The test of respectability, judged by tho snob's standard, is tooney. With him gold covers every am, except of course that of keeping a "hop. The English snob sets up a number of distinctions which no one «an appreciate but himself. The result *B, that, instead of there being three «n England, there are half-a-dozen or a

•dozen. The tradesman in a large way will not apeak to the tradesman in a small way jthemerchant who ownsafleet will take no notice of the merchant who does not; and the farmer who lives upon his own estate can do nothing but regard with contempt he who rents hi 3 farm. All this can be verified from one's every-day experience. The result is that social and healthy intercourse receives a severe check, and men are induced to regard each other with hate and suspicion. How can anybody entertain respect for a man who treats you with contempt because he can show a huudred-pound note to your fifty, especially when there is more than a probability that he had obtained what he possesses by sharp practices! There may be some excuse for the hauteur with which the aristocracy regard those beneath them. But there is none for the man who merely assume.B a position because he has money. It is" often debated in men's minds Whether, upon meeting an associate, they shall " see " him Until he "sees" them. They know very well that, unless he is a tried and known friend, it is by no means a remote contingency that he will cut them—and a cut is about the bitterest pill a man can be asked to swallow. If similar motives are actuating both parties, it is evident that they will not be brought together. They may not be snobs, and may be calculated to become firm friends. But they cannot do so. This is one of the vile effects which the snob induces. The snob, if insolent to those beneath bim, is the veriest lickspittle to those abovehim. Many a purse-proud merchant, who has perhaps sprung from the gutter, wonld give ten years of his life to : secure the notice and be asked to the house of a nobleman. It is from such as he that people get their erroneous ideas oftbe vulgarity of the middle classes. He is mean-spirited and sycophantish, and would not for worlds dare to express an opinion opposite to one enunciated by any great man in whose company he was. He is not ashamed however to hint at his wealth and importance. He has no objection to let it be known that money is his god, and ostentatiously shows his great weapon. There is no town more disagreeable for a straager to enter than an English one. He is looked coldly upon and carefully avoided until he produces his credentials, in the shape of cash or evidence of social position. It is not that English people are at heart inhospitable. It is that people are afraid to recognise a man for fear of what other people will say. It is in short another evidence of the evil influence of the snob.