TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
1st Month 1846.
RESPECTED FRIEND—I am a subscriber to the Spectator, and a reader of some other weeklies, London and local; and what I am about to state is perhaps no news to the editor. I have observed, for a considerable time past, a practice re- sorted to, by some of the above papers, of copying paragraphs and summaries of intelligence from the Spectator, without acknowledgment; and as such a mode of appropriating the property of another does not accord with my ideas of justice and honesty, I have ventured to call the attention of the Spectator to it. The remedy may not be very clear, unless by threatening, as Punch, did on a similar occasion, to publish the names of the defaulters.
[The practice alluded to by our friendly subscriber extends much further than he seems to be aware of—not to mere " paragraphs" and "summaries of intelli- mos " only, but to criticism and discussion of all kinds. We suspect, however, that the " remedy " suggested would operate in most cases rather as an encou- ragement: "to publish the names" of the shabby thieves, would probably serve their purpose better than our silent contempt.—En.]
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