THE HEAD-MASTER OF ETON AND THE GERMAN SCHOOLBOY.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR"] SIR,—My attention has been called to a letter from Mr. Gustav Hein in your issue of last week. It seems to me rather singular that an editor of a well-known paper apparently does not yet understand that there are such things as misreported and garbled speeches, and exaggerations built upon them. I think, Sir, you might have suspected that something of the kind has happened in this case. I made a few perfectly harmless remarks, not about the German schoolboys of to-day, but about one individual whom I clearly remember thirty years ago. He certainly was in appearance overworked. Your correspondent's correction of what I am supposed to have said makes no difference whatever to the fact, nor to the possibility of a boy feeling the burden of schoolwork on which his prospects depend. It is much the same thing whether he is working to pass an examination or to get a certificate which gives him "a great number of important and valuable privileges." That a few wholly insignificant remarks should have furnished so many newspapers with material for ponderous comment is a revelation of the straits to which editors seem to be reduced.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[We are extremely sorry to have commented upon a report which misrepresented so fundamentally, as it appears, Canon Lyttelton's remarks. We may note, however, that though the speech was very widely reported and commented on, no correction, as far as we know, was made. In these circumstances we cannot fairly be blamed for accepting the reports as authentic.—ED. Spectator.]
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