MEMORIES OF AN OLD READER OF THE " SPECTATOR "
[To the Editor of the SancraTan.] SIR,--One of your oldest readers recently challenged compari- sons. I find that I have been a reader of the Spectator for just seventy-one years. that is, since I was ten years old. My father, an American publisher. with a publishing house in London, had continued English interests. Ile was a subscriber to various British periodicals, of which I think he valued the Spectator the most. He also took in, as I remember, the Albion, which in the year 1851 was a paper published in New York to give information on English matters to English residents of the City and to Americans who had English interests. On the 30th May, 1851, I had been with my father in London, and had seen and heard Prince Albert open the Exhibition, which was, as we all know, the work of Albert's vision, imagination and organization. I had returned to New York with fresh interest in matters, men and conditions in England.
In 1854 the Spectator, in common with the other leading papers of Great Britain, was naturally giving first attention to the Crimean War. I recall now my boy's absorption in the record, as given in the Spectator articles, of the battles, which in those days loomed as great battles, of Balaclava and Inkerman, and the delight with which I learned in 1855 of the successful close of the war. My memories of the campaigns in the Crimea were revived a few years later in the reading of the dramatic narrative presented in Kinglake's History. Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer, was a friend of my father's, and I remember his speaking of coming back to the outer world after three years' imprisonment, so to speak, in the North, and being met with the news of the capture of Sebastopol. " Who, where and what is Sebastopol ? " said Dr. Kane, who, absorbed in his own undertakings, was nut familiar with conditions in far-off Russia.
In 1857, the thrilling articles in the Spectator had to do with the Sepoy Rebellion. My father had had pleasant personal relations with Hutton and with Meredith Townsend. Townsend was, as older men will recall, the authority for Britain on matters in India. I had the privilege, years later, of publishing his important volume Asia and Europe. I judge that the book will remain the most authoritative presentation for the English-speaking peoples of the state of mind and the methods of thought of the Orientals in India. For the boys of my time such events as the massacre at Cawnpore, the Relief of Lueknow• and the Capture of Delhi were exciting. Havelock was our hero.
In 1858, an article in the Spectator commended to the attention of its American readers the first journey westward of the steamer the Great Eastern.' I had the privilege of being a passenger in this steamer in an excursion trip from New York to Cape May. I was naturally impressed with what the reporters of the time called the " majestic dimen. sions " of a vessel which was 600 feet long, and which was provided, in addition to the power given by the engines and paddle-wheels, with six masts. It may be recalled that engines and sail-power were alike helpless when, a year or two later, the ' Great Eastern' was caught in a gale off the coast of Ireland and, her steering gear having been carried away, was, for two or three days, helpless in the trough of the sea. The cleverness of an American passenger devised a steering apparatus which brought the vessel safely to Queenstown.
Americans ]lave reason to remember with full appreciation the patriotism and foresight of- the position taken by the
Spectator in the period of the Civil War-1861-1865. During those years I was myself doing work with my regiment in Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, and I had no opportunity to continue my reading of the Spectator, but I recall my father's report when I got home in 1864 that the friends of America, who were owners and editors of the great paper, had sacrificed important business interests for the purpose of maintaining what they believed to be the cause of the right--the maintenance of the American Republic and the abolition of slavery.
Hutton and Townsend also held that the maintenance of the Republic was something of continued importance for Great Britain and for all the English-speaking peoples of the world. They realized that the American Republic stood for representative government, and as the English-speaking peoples had been responsible, from the time of the Magna Charta on, for the organization and maintenance of repre- sentative government, they held it to he essential that the great example of such government should not be crushed out of existence. The Editors of the Spectator were wiser in taking this part in directing public opinion in their day than were John Delane of the Times, Lord Palmerston, Lord Russell, and other English leaders, who were sympathetic with the attempt to break up the Republic. I recall the word of an old Major-General given to me in London in July, 1918. The news had just arrived of the fight at Chateau Thierry, the first fight in which American troops had been given an opportunity to show what they could do. The General came to me with a newspaper in his hands, and with the words, " Major, those Yankee boys of yours can fight." I said that I had thought they would fight ; they had fought with me half a century ago. " And," continued the General, " there are one million of them in France." I answered, " There are two millions, and eight millions more ready to come." The General thought for a moment, and then re- marked : " Major, we are rather glad we did not break up your Republic in 1861. We think you can be useful to us." The General's word in 1918 confirmed the wisdom of the position taken by the Spectator during the four years' struggle of 1861-1865.
The Spectator has always taken position on the side of human progress. It• is a satisfactory paper, if only for its optimism. Its Editors and its contributors are believers in the advance of humanity. I have had occasion to differ, front time to time, with conclusions presented in the pages of the paper, but I have always been able to feel a full measure of confidence in the absolute integrity of purpose and of utterance on the part of the editorial management and of the editorial contributors. I have told friends on both sides of the Atlantic that I consider the Spectator to be the best journal published in the English language, although I find occasional ground for question or difference of opinion as, for instance, at the present time, when the Spectator is giving support to a Government that is undermining the old-time and thoroughly tested English policy of freedom of trade.—I am, Sir, &c., GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM. 24 Bedford Street, London, W.C. 2.
[We trust our readers will not accuse us of vanity in pub- lishing so flattering a letter from one of the most respected and perhaps the oldest among them.- -En. Spectator.]
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