Mr. George Meredith has contributed to the Westminster Casette a
protest in verse against the use of the name "Tommy Atkins," or rather "Atkins." "Exquisite humour," indignantly exclaims Mr. Meredith, "that gives him a naming base to the ear as an ass's bray." Does Mr. Meredith know the origin of the name,—that "Thomas Atkins" is in military regulations the counterpart to the "John Doe" of old legal documents ? But apart from this, we fail to see that any degrading or disparaging meaning attaches to the name. Even assuming that it ever did, the events of the last two years have surely obliterated the stigma, and the term "Tommy Atkins" or " Tommy " is now habitually need in a sense of friendliness, if not of actual endearment. We regret to find in so great a man of letters as Mr. George Meredith a victim of this gratuitous fastidious- ness. If it is an insult to call a private "Tommy Atkins," a fortiori must it be crime to call Lord Roberts "Bobs." At this rate we must mend our nomenclature all round, and devise more dignified and euphonious substitutes for "John Bull," "Jack Tar," and "Uncle Sam." But the protest, to be effectual, must come from those directly con- cerned. And we do not see that it will make " Tommy " a finer fellow than he is if we call him "Philip Sidney" or "Plantagenet Howard." That would probably only provoke a fresh protest from the Conciliation Committee.
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