The Raw Material of Scandal

Mr. Wilberforce relates that at one time he found himself chronicled as "St. "Wilberforce" in an opposing journal, and the following given as an instance of his Pharisaism." "He was lately seen," says the journal, "walking up and down in the Bath Pump-room reading his prayers, like his predecessors of old, who prayed in the corners of the streets to be seen of men." "As there is generally," says Mr. Wilberforce, "some slight circumstance which perverseness turns into a charge or reproach, I began to reflect, and I soon found the occasion of the calumny. It was this:—I was walking in the Pump-room in conversation with a friend; a passage was quoted from Horace, the accuracy of which was questioned, and as I had a Horace in my pocket, I took it out and read the words. This was the plain 'bit of wire' which factious malignity sharpened into a pin to pierce my reputation." How many ugly pins have been manufactured out of smaller bits of wire than even that!--Anon