THE LATE CANON HARPER.
[To TER EDITOR OF THZ "SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The insertion of a letter from a dead correspondent might probably be a bizarrerie unfit for the Spectator. And the Spectator would never have been the Spectator had not Spectatorial fitness been ever paramount in its consideration. Subject, however, to that probability, I should like to be allowed to suggest to its readers and admirers, and especially to its correspondents, that they should do as I am doing, direct that notice of their several deaths should be inserted in the Spectator's obituary. Their common regard for that honoured journal surely creates for them a common interest one in another. I should decidedly read with interest of Mr. Joseph John Murphy's death. I hope he will be kindly enough to feel some slight interest in reading of mine.—/ am, Sir, &c., FRANCIS WHALEY HARPER,
ex-Vicar of Selby.
P.S.—This kind of regard and affection for a journal which has grown to be, as Carlyle says, a" miraculous entity" to one, will be made impossible if ever, through the practice of all articles being signed, the journal itself should become a mere case or binding.
[We conclude that Canon Harper, to whom we once playfully ascribed the function of acting as Conscience to the Spectator, wrote this letter before his death, and wished it to be sent to us as soon as that event,—which we deeply regret,—had occurred. We can hardly refuse to publish the kindly letter by which the obituary notice,—printed in another column,— was accompanied. Unfortunately, Mr. Joseph John Murphy had died many months before Canon Harper.—En. Spectator.1
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