



Produced by David Widger





NUTS AND NUTCRACKERS

By Charles James Lever

     "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.


Illustrated By "Phiz."

London: Chapman And Hall, 193 Piccadilly.

MDCCCLVII.


[Illustration: 018]




AN OPENING NUT.


"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