THE LATTER DAYS OF BISMARCK.
[To THZ EDITOZ OP TEE " SPECTATOP.1 Snt,--My attention has been called to an article in the Spectator of January 17th which contains (p. 93) the following offensive personal reflections concerning myself:— "This author's business avocations were hardly calculated to serve him as a passport in the eyes of the ex-Reichskanzler, who by no means discarded the Continental rule which surrounds good' society with a barbed fence for its protection against the intrusion of persons with plebeian qUarterings and pursuits. The fact, however, that Mr. Whitman had published a laudatory book on the new Germany and. its founder enhbled him to. knock by invitation at the door of the Pomeranian castle the year after the owner's expulsion from office,—i.e., in 1891."
I am advised that the above exceeds the limits of fair
criticism, and, by endeavouring to create an invidious and false impression of my position, is calculated to do me serious material damage and injury. I therefore call upon you here- with to publish an unqualified expression of regret in your next number that you should have allowed this unprovoked
personal attack to appear in the columns of the Spectator.-
[We had certainly no desire "to create an invidious and false impression" of our correspondent's position, or to do
him " serious " or any "material damage and injury," and we have therefore not the slightest' hesitation in publishing the "unqualified expression of regret" for which he asks. Our
reviewer had no thought of injuring Mr. Whitman in any way, nor did it occur to us for a moment that the words quoted above could be interpreted as injurious. We should have thought that it was perfectly obvious from the passage in question that the ironic criticism was levelled against the folly and fatuity of " good " society on the Continent, which, as is well known, is pedantically and ridiculously exclusive. That was certainly what our reviewer intended to express, and what we are confident our readers generally understood from his words. The editor of this paper is quite well aware that his
business avocations " could hardly be " calculated to serve him as a passport" with people who kept up the Continental rule, but he cannot honestly say that, he finds the slightest sense of injury and humiliation in the . thought. .However, as our intention was in no possible sense • to injure or annoy Mr. Whitman, but merely to state a fact very little to the credit )f German society, and as Mr. Whitman desires it, we have sot, as we have said, the slightest objection to offering him wr"unqualified expression of regret."—ED. Spectator.]
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