LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
AN INFAMOUS CIRCULAR.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In rage and fury I turn to you to ventilate my wrath in the hope that you will publicly condemn the cause of the annoyance. I have received a touting circular from " Lt.-Col. Sir Brodrick Hartwell," asking for money which will be returned with twenty per cent. interest in sixty days. How is this alluring profit to be made ? By running whisky across the Atlantic. I am no teetotaller or prohibitionist, but is not such a proposal an insult to any respecter of law or friend to the people of the United States ? The circular vaunts an arrangement for the delivery of an ocean of spirits at sea which, says the high-minded writer, does not mean " a smuggling expedition, neither does it in any way conflict with the laws of England or any other country." Probably he and others are legally advised that accessories to smuggling are not amenable if they keep outside the three-mile limit, but morally is not this analogous to the plea of an innocent fellow saying, " I only hold the axe and hand it (for very good consideration) to my friend the murderer when he is ready " ?
And if I am disgusted, how much more will decent American opinion be infuriated ? The circular says that last year British syndicates sending " good and bad " whiskies in this way made profits of " over 18,000,000." If Americans believe this, their indignation will be bitter and their scorn indiscriminate. It will be " the British " who stoop to any
mean way of making millions out of contraband liquor. There was no Spectator to tell America that this nation was not united behind George III. and Lord North, or ill feeling might have been mitigated then, but you, Sir, can tell a good many readers there that not one Englishman in a thousand wishes to dirty his forgers by making twenty per cent. out of them through upsetting their laws in this contemptible manner. —I am, Sir, &c.,
W. V. COOPER.
[We most heartily endorse our correspondent's protest and are sure that he will have the support of the vast majority of his countrymen. We may say that we have received nearly a hundred protests in the past few weeks. The scheme is a disgrace to those who make it and to those who respond to it.—En. Spectator.]
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