Nuts and Nutcrackers

“The world's my filbert which with my crackers I will open.”
Shakespear.
“The priest calls the lawyer a cheat, And the lawyer beknaves the divine; And the statesman, because he's so great, Thinks his trade 's as honest as mine.”
Beggars Opera
“Hard texts are nuts (I will not call them cheaters,) Whose shells do keep their kernels from the eaters; Open the shells, and you shall have the meat: They are are brought for you to crack and eat.”
John Bunyan.
“An Opening Nut.”
This is the age of popular delusions! Everybody endeavours to be somebody else, and everything is made to resemble something it is not. Every class and section of society seeks to mystify the other, and the whole world is masquerading it, very much it would seem to the whole world's delight. There are people who think the Tories consistent—the Whigs honest—and the Repealers respectable. Nothing too palpable in absurdity not to have its followers; nor does the ridicule cease with ourselves; but all who visit us catch the malady—witness the Indian Chiefs, who called on Ben. D'Israeli, to see the style of life and habits of the English Aristocracy.
These things after all are but poor delusions—little better than what the Wizard of the North calls “Parlour Magic,” and might be left to time, to be laughed at, just like the French war clamour—the O'Connell denunciation—or the Young England discovery of the “pure 'Cocktailian' race.” There are, however, other fallacies which from age and habit have gradually associated themselves with our social existence, and become, as it were, national. To disabuse the world of some of these, has been my object in the present little volume. To endeavour not only to show that we often
“Compound for sins we are inclined to, By damning those we have no mind to;”
but also, that our laws and institutions—our manners and customs—are based less upon principles of justice, than mere convenience and social advantage.
That such an undertaking will be graciously received or kindly acknowledged, I have never been able to persuade myself; no more than I feel disposed to believe, that hunger can be fed by Acts of Parliament; or starvation alleviated by Cricket or Jack in the bowl; however, it is my way of regenerating the land, and why should n't I “roll my tub” as well as my neighbours. Why I have given the volume its present title, would be perhaps more difficult to account for, save, that I have remarked on so many classes and gradations of people; and that, “Knocks” at our neighbours are generally “Nuts” to ourselves.