• THE LATE DE. GEORGE SMITH.
(To TEE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sta,—As the eldest nephew of the late R. II. Hutton, and as having worked in my youth for nearly two years in the office of the Friend of India at Serampur under the late Dr. Smith. to whom I had been introduced by the late Mr. Meredith Townsend, I feel that I ought in justice to the last-named great journalist and his family to point out an inaccuracy in the obituary notice of Dr. Smith in the Times of December 27th. It is there sfated that, "on Mr. Townsend's retirement in ill-health to England early in 1880 to join R. II. Hutton in the conduct of the Spectator, Dr. Smith became sole editor of the Friend of India," die., &e. The fact however was, I believe. that my uncle applied to Mr. Townsend for work as a contributor to the Spectator, which Mr. Townsend hail acquired shortly after his return from India, and that he was so much pleased. with my uncle's writing and with his personal interviews with him that he offered him a partnership and joint editorship in the paper, and—unless my memory fails me —generously advanced him part of the money to buy a share in it. As is well known, the two men formed a close friendship with each other, which lasted the whole of their lives.—I am,
[Mr. Edward Hutton's account of tfle matter referred to is correct.—ED. Spectator.]
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