The Spectator

Sunday

The Spectator

Please stay to build a better Britain: more Spectator readers write to Scots

From our UK edition

This week's Spectator cover piece is written by our readers. Here are some more letters to Scottish voters, explaining why our United Kingdom should stay together. I come from the Isles of Scilly, which is as far away from Scotland as it’s possible to get whilst remaining in the UK. Flung out into the Atlantic ocean, 28 miles off Land’s End, I have always thought of my islands as part of the great Celtic fringe of this Kingdom. All I can do is plead with the people of Scotland to look beyond an opportunity to 'shake off Tory rule' and to consider instead how fortunate it is to be born British, and how much Scotland means to the rest of this country.

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A word to America

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: WE desire to address a word to the American people, a word which must be spoken, though we are fully aware that it will be liable to misunderstanding and misconstruction, and is certain to be distorted by those whose business it is to exercise pressure upon American opinion in the German interest. First, in order that we may as far as possible minimize such misrepresentation, let us say quite clearly what we do not ask the American people to do. We do not ask them to come to our assistance, either directly or indirectly. The notion of trying to involve them in our wars and our difficulties is one which we have never entertained for a single moment.

Saturday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A naval howler

From our UK edition

A reader’s letter from The Spectator, 12 September 1914: [To the Editor of The Spectator] Sir, I am afraid your correspondent "Ex-Scholar" (Spectator, September 5th), in quoting a "howler," has committed a little one himself. The incident of the sacred chickens to which he alludes did not take place in the "first sea fight between Romans and Carthaginians," nor was Duilins the commander who flouted the State system of auguries. It was Claudius Pulcher who (as the Romans thought, in consequence of his blasphemy) was defeated in 249 B.C. by the Carthaginians under Adherbal off Drepana (Lilybaeum) in Sicily. It was his sister, a true scion of the arrogant Clandian stock, who, incommoded by the crowds leaving the games, said : "Oh that my brother were alive and in command of our ships!

Friday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: The King’s message

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: The King's message addressed "To the Governments and Peoples of My Self-Governing Dominions," published to the world on Wednesday, is noble in its sincerity of word and thought. What could be said better or with a truer dignity than the following: ‘Had I stood aside when, in defiance of pledges to which my kingdom was a party, the soil of Belgium was violated and her cities laid desolate, when the very life of the French nation was threatened with extinction I should have sacrificed my honour and given to destruction the liberties of my Empire and of man- kind. I rejoice that every part of the Empire is with me in this decision.

Thursday