11 MARCH 1871, Page 15

"THE AUTHOR OF JIM BLUDSO.' "

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.')

Sin,—You and some of your readers may like to know that the author of the ballad "Jim Bludsoe," which you quoted on Saturday, is Mr. John Hay, formerly private secretary to President Lincoln, then Secretary of Legation at Paris and Madrid, and now a leader-writer on the New York Tribune.—I am, Sir, Sm., G. W. S.

[We are glad to be informed, also on the authority of the writer of this letter, that the admirable and humorous little ballad called "Little Breeches," quoted by us in the last Spectator of last year (December 31, 1870), is by the same author.—En. Spectator.]