MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD AND THE NEW POET- LAUREATE.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEM SPZCIA.TOFL."1 SIR,—In your note on Mr. Austin's appointment to the Laureateship you say, " We happen to know that Matthew Arnold greatly admired one of his poems published shortly before Matthew Arnold's death." You go on to say, " We do not admire him (Mr. Austin) at all when he strikes a melancholy attitude by Lord Beaconsfield's grave." It may possibly interest you to know that "Lord Beaconsfield's Grave" was the very poem which Matthew Arnold " greatly admired," or, at any rate, that it did win "great admiration" from that admittedly competent critic.—I am, Sir, &c., " LECTOR."
[We are sure that the poem to which we referred was not the poem on Lord Beaconsfield. Mr. Arnold may also have admired that, for anything we know to the contrary, but if he did, his taste was certainly not at its beat when he admired those histrionic verses.—ED. Spectator].
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