26 JULY 1884, Page 16

"PSEUDONYMOUS BIOGRAPHERS."

[To THZ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—When a writer borrows from himself, be can scarcely be called a plagiarist; nor is it morally wrong to reprint in a book what you have published in a periodical. I hasten to assure you that Augustus Lewis, who wrote about Mr. Irving in the Dublin University Magazine of September, 1877, is one and the same person with Frederic Daly, who has written about "Henry Irving in England and America" in 1884. Per- haps the change of name was ill-advised, though not, I trust, a criminal offence ; but it has at least given me the pleasure of learning that the Spectator still remembers a magazine article of mine seven years old. Your reviewer is good enough to say that, "pending some explanation of this apparent plurality of pseudonymous biographers, we may be excused from any further criticism of the book." May I hope that, satisfied as to my identity, he will now proceed with his studies ?—I am, Sir, &c.,