PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1121, 4 November 1873, Page 2

PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE.

(To the Editor of tlie Westport Times.') Sir, —"By , Sir, the morals of this people must and shall bo attended to ! !" In the compulsory absence of a better man I will be their guide, philosopher, and friend. If they will not listen to me as "Commercial Traveller," I will try an "Uncommercial " guise. If they will not listen to my teachings in those cloaks, I will take the modest garb of " Elector," "Honesty," "Long-handle Shovel," and " Pick." And if, failing all these, they still refuse to profit by my teachings, I will compel them to learn by my

example. As Ewen Macroid I will ■ show them how I fulfil the new com- B mandment, and how I heap coals of fire 6 on the heads of my adversary. & 8 E " Smif," I will illustrate the mode in Ej which a mild and gentlemanly rebuke j should be administered to a man who 1 may be aiming at too high a social I position. And as " Short-handle I Shovel" I will exhibit to their admiring | gaze how I indulge the Craving of my 1 genius for relaxation and play by | making a dead set at the motives and 1 actions of a man who certainly never I did me any hai'm; but who it amuses 1 me to hold up for public ridicule, for § exhibiting too much anxiety to ensure a | share of honest toil wherewith to gain | his bread, while I twit him with the 1 non-payment of his butcher's bill. | I am, &c, | Sole Cobsespondent. I [" Sole Correspondent" is iu erron § in attributing to one individual the I various letters referred to, They were E written by either five or six correspondents. He is doubly in error in seeking to ridicule, by implication, the use of the open column of this paper. Granting that many of the communications appearing therein ex. press false ideas, and are written to gratify personal vanity, spleen, or peculiar crotchets, the open column has its uses as a debating ground for expression of all shades of opinion. Instead of puzzling themselves to identify anonymous writers, like children over a book of riddles, let those who have so much spare time and talent at command " write to the paper'' themselves, combating argument with argument, exposing whatever may be deemed false or disingenuous, and thushelp to foster a more healthy public opinion on matters affecting the public welfare.—Ed. W.T.]