[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--The Spectator of March
20th has just arrived, containing a letter " On Hating America." You suggest that it may be worth while to enter on a " frank " discussion of hatred of both countriesāAmerica and England. To what end ? Is not all personal criticism futile, and rather ill-bred ? What would frankness such as you propose lead to ? To what purpose does the pot call the kettle black ?
We Americans know we are hatedāalas ! we hear and read of it too often to pretend to deafness. Happily as individuals the Lord has blessed us, in listening to the prayer of the simple 'clergyman, that we might be granted " that self-complacency which is the balm of life" It helps us; in this case, to realize that this hatred is largly due to politics and to the ever-to-be- deplored subject of international debt. However, when occasion occurs, witness the late acts of heroism and brotherly loveand sacrifice at sea this winter Why rub each other the
wrong way unnecessarily by airing all our petty faults and recriminations ? Why not remember and dwell rather upon the fact that when the call is heard we do comeābetter late than never ! After all it is much more amusing to hunt for sport than for quarrel ! Let politics take care of themselves, whilst individuals strive to drop this hateful spirit of eternal criticism and pecking at each other, and remember that as we " look into a glass darkly " gladly would we meet the spirit of a friend breaking through that darkness.
" Hating America " is heard on all sides ; mercifully we do not read of " Hating England " in our better-class journals. If not too late may I ask you to publish this letter as a reply from one of your subscribers to your suggestion ?āI am, Sir, &c.,
(Miss) ELIZABETH GASEELL NORTON.
ā¢ 19 Chestnut Street, Boston, U.S.A.
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