A PROTEST.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sit,—Having for many years been a reader of the Spectator, and knowing and fully appreciating the high-minded fairness and justice with which public questions are generally discussed in its columns, I was surprised to find in your number of October 28th, a paper like the one entitled " Rolling-stone Rambles," which seemed to me singularly deficient in those qualities. Even if taken as nothing but the jen d'esprit of a cynic and an epicure, aiming at the laurels of Sterne and of Heine (and I was inclined at first to look at it in that light), it seemed strangely out of place; but the acrid spirit under- lying the talk of this holiday-maker is apt to produce other effects than a mere laugh at his eccentricities. I would ask what possible good it can do to speak of a great nation like the Germans, as he does, as of a mass of coarse, impudent bullies, equally devoid of spirit and sense of beauty and of politeness, intent only on affronting strangers, and priding themselves, in the vulgar tone of parvenus, on their own superiority; and, having painted the Germans in this character, to add a warning of the Deutschenhass, furious as the Tudenhass, which will be sure to arise, should they continue in their bad ways ? The writer seems much offended by the inability of Germans to understand his version of their language,—but, judging from the specimens of his pronunciation of German mentioned. by himself, I am not astonished at, the result. No German would be able, without an explanation, to understand the meaning of the mystic word " 'Voss," of the invention of which the Rolling-stone Rambler seems so proud ; nor would any German know what this critic means by the equally mystic words Benny-dig and WeGa, which he gives as the equivalents of " Venedig " and. "Wien," and from which he draws the inference that no sense of beauty can ever be expected in people using such words for "Venice "and " Vienna." His treatment of the Alsace-Lorraine question is similarly curious. Being at first at a loss bow to characterise the want of generosity shown by the Germans in annexing those provinces, on second thoughts he considers that, after all, they have shown wonderful moderation. Unfortunately, a good. deal of silly and. mischievous international talk seems unavoidable ; but I trust that you will allow me to express the surprise and. regret which many Germans will feel, that in the present instance it should have found a place in the Spectator.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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