A REJOINDER 159 



Poor and contemptible nation it will be which 

 shall substitute such a " We " for a bene- 

 ficent but merciless Nature which evolves a 

 race of men to whom a cracked head in the service 

 of their country is but a passing factor in their lives. 

 Compare the product of such a Nature with that 

 which the " We " seems desirous of evolving. " They 

 run," is the message brought to the fatally wounded 

 General; "Then I die happy," comes the simple 

 answer from the lips upon which death has already 

 set its seal, may represent the symbolic and actual 

 product of the one, while a wailing crowd of senti- 

 mentalists quivering with emotion at the sight of a 

 " cut finger " of one of the " People's " children is 

 the product of the other ! 



Or, pursuing another line, are the " We " repre- 

 sented by those sentimental people who, sitting as 

 Justices of the Peace, or as magistrates, or as juries, 

 let free the inborn criminal who has pilfered and 

 raided the property of others, that he may 

 repeat his depredations, wasting alike the material 

 possessions and the time of better citizens ? 

 That he may by the immunity which he enjoys 

 subsequently encourage others and widen his own 

 sphere of activity ? The thrifty, capable, and 

 acquisitive citizen, thus robbed illegally at one end 

 of the scale and legally at the other, through rates 

 and taxes imposed by the sentimental and, in very 

 recent time, also by the vindictive " We " : What 

 line of evolution does all this indicate the nation 



