The early communication between the English and German languages, of
which "Mr. HICKSON" puts forward the derivation of "news" from "neues"
as an instance, may be an interesting and profitable subject of inquiry;
but as I think he has been singularly unfortunate in the one instance,
so I do not think him particularly happy in his other. I see no further
resemblance between Heywood's "Song in praise of his Mistress," and the
early German poem, than what _might_ arise from treatment of the same
and a very common subject.

I am not enough of an etymologist to give you the root of the word
"noise." But my faith in "Mr. HICKSON" in this capacity is not strong
enough to lead me to believe, on his dictum, that "news" and "noise" are
the same word; and when, pursuing his fancy about "neues," he goes on to
say that "noise" is "from a dialect from which the modern German
pronunciation of the dipthong is derived," I fear his pronunciation of
German is faulty, if he pronounces _eu_ in "Neues" like _oi_ in "noise."

[We differ from our correspondent on this point, and think that
here, at all events, Mr. HICKSON has the advantage of the
argument.]

I beg to repeat that for "Mr. HICKSON" I feel great respect. If he knew
my name, he would probably know nothing about me; but I happen {488} to
know of him, what perhaps, some of your readers do not, that he has
unostentatiously rendered many considerable services not only to
literature but to our social and political interests. In my humble
opinion, his recent essay in your columns on _The Taming of the Shrew_
is a contribution to our literary history which you may be proud of
having published. But I feel that I cannot too strongly protest against
his derivation of "News."