pig-headedness, and want of vision, is beyond all doubt. This want of
vision was specially illustrated during the Civil War. "The Spectator,"
however, I am proud to say, without being unjust to the South, or
failing to note its gallantry, and its noble sacrifices even in a wrong
cause, was consistently on the side of the North. Moreover, it realised
that the North was going to win, and ought to win, and so would abolish
slavery. There is a special tradition at the "Spectator" office of which
we are very proud. It is that the military critic of "The Spectator," at
that time Mr. Hooper, a civilian but with an extraordinary flair for
strategy, divined exactly what Sherman was doing when he started on his
famous march. Many years afterwards General Sherman, either in a speech
or on the written page, for I cannot now verify the fact, though I am
perfectly certain of it, said that when he started with the wires cut
behind him, there were only two people in the world who knew what his
objective was. One was himself and the other, as he said, "an anonymous
writer in the London 'Spectator.'" My American readers will understand
why I and all connected with "The Spectator" are intensely proud of this
fact. The fate, not only of America but of the whole English-speaking
race, hung upon the success of Sherman's feat of daring. In turn that
success hung upon the fact that Sherman's objective was the sea. To have
divined that was a notable achievement in the art of publicity._

J. ST. L. S.




CONTENTS