In connexion with the " Specimen Days " we have
received a protest from the Gas Light and Coke Company. Here we pass from the general to the particular, and we admit that the Company has very good cause to feel aggrieved. The complaint is that the article by a gas fitter published in the Spectator of February 27th clearly referred to the Company. We did not know that any reference was intended to this Company, or any particular company, as no name—not even the name of a town—was men- tioned. Had we known that internal evidence in an article obviously full of wild statements pointed indis- putably to a particular company we should have asked the writer to remove the offensive indications. All we wanted was the writer's point of view, whatever that might be. It so happens that the name of the Gas Light and Coke Company, which now comes before us in this unexpected way, stands for many things of which we highly approve, and for which we are con- tinually contending. One is co-partnership ; others are a wider use of gas and coke, which would go a long way towards cleaning our skies. It may seem odd to say so, but gas and coke have become almost names of magic to us.