THE " TONELESSNESS " OF ENGLISHMEN.
70 TRH EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR"]
SIR,—Many people might consider, with good reason, that Mr. Vaile's tirade against English youths in your last issue is sufficiently contrary to the facts to obviate any necessity for a reply. It has, however, been remarked by an American (Senator Hoar of Boston) that " the spirit of indiscriminate detraction does more than any other to create what it thinks it finds, and to bring to pass its own prophecies." Mr. Valle taxes the English youth, among other things, with " tone- lessness " of thought, want of originality, an unwholesome worship of sport, a distaste for physical effort, and a dread of being in " bad form." He has himself in the course of the last year placed two books before the English public which form a somewhat curious commentary on the above criticisms. For example, his denunciation of the worship of sport is not greatly strengthened by the fact that he has printed nearly a thousand pages in a year in which he attempts to deal wholly with one branch of sport. I do not think the English youth are generally supposed to have "a distaste for physical effort," but in any case Mr. Vaile's avowal that although in the prime of life he has been sitting in the gallery at lawn-tennis matches for fifteen years ought to " estop " him from making this charge. As for his de- traction of English lawn-tennis players, the best answer is supplied by the facts. We welcome talent in Australasian players more than in any one else, but when we come to questions of fact concerning the international matches in July Mr. Vaile's disparagement of the " plain, unimaginative, stereotyped game " of the Englishmen as compared with the " beauty of alert mentality and quick execution" of the Americans and Australians turns out to be as baseless and unwarranted as most of his other remarks. The fact was that the best Australian could not win a single set in the final of the English championship, and that in the international matches the Americans beat the Australians easily, and then found that they could not win a single one of the five matches played against the English. There is one observation I desire to make concerning Mr. Vaile's letter in conclusion. It appears to me that the way to ingratiate oneself with a large section of the Press and the public in this country consists in wholesale and unmitigated disparagement of the English nation. It does not matter if the allegations be unfounded or not; but if one will only keep at it long enough and do it thoroughly, one is sure of a wide hearing before long. I agree with "A. F." in your last number that • it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when our own people assail am, Sir, &c., F. W. PAYN
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