THE WIT AND WISDOM OF LORD LYTTON.
LTO THE EDITOR OF TILE " SPECTATOR.1
Sla,—In your notice of "The Wit and Wisdom of Lord Lytton," you ask, with reference to myself, "Why did- he not remind its—though it be not always true—that the worst pos- sible use-you can put a man to is to hang him P' " Will you let me answer at once, for the simple reason that the Earl of Clar- endon was the one who, early in the seventeenth century, when descanting, "in his younger dayes," upon "The Disparity between Buckingham and Essex," first employed the phrase that "hanging was the worst use man could be put to." See " Reliquias Wottonianas," p. 201, a rare collection, made, accord- ing to its title-page, "by the curious pencil of the ever memor- able Sir Henry Wotton, Kt.,late Provost of Eaton College," and originally published in 1651 by Izaac Walton.—I am, Sir, &c., Ath,enceum Club, January 1st. CHARLES KENT.
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