On July 5th, 1828, the first number of the Spectator
was published. We thus complete a hundred years this week. It has long been in our mind how we should mark this happy occasion and . after due reflection we decided that it would be more cefivenient to celebrate our centenary in the autumn than when minds are already fagged by politics and our readers are already thinking of holidays. In the autumn, therefore, a history of the Spectator will be published in a small book and we shall also issue a special number of the Spectator in the first week of November. The history will tell of the foundation of the Spectator by Rintoul and follow its fortunes through the joint-editorship of Hutton and Townsend and the editorship of St. Loe Strachey down to the present time. Of all the incidents in this eventful record the most memorable, we think, is the decision of Hutton and Townsend to back the cause of the North against the South in the American Civil War at a moment when the issue was still almost universally misunderstood here. The decision brought respect for the judgment of the editors which was expressed in a steady widening of the circle of readers and, above all, forged a link between the United States and the Spectator which has never been snapped, and we hope never will be. But more of this when the time comes. In the meantime we would only thank with all sincerity those who have not overlooked an auspicious date. * * *
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