iciently explicit terms, he withdraws the charge
of "personal malice" which he brought against the critic, and which, we
may again assure him, is absolutely unfounded.

But he adheres to the other charge of critical incapacity. Mr. Wilde
assures us that his book, so far from being dull and tedious, is full of
interest; an opinion which is shared (see the letter we print on another
page to-day) by his publishers' advertising agent-in-advance.

Well, we can only repeat that we disagree with Mr. Wilde and his
publishers' paragraphist.

Quite apart from "ethical" considerations, the book seems to us a feeble
and ineffective attempt at a kind of allegory which, in the hands of
abler writers (writers like Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Anstey, for instance)
can be made striking or amusing.

Mr. Wilde also says that we suggested that the author and publishers of
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" ought to be prosecuted by the Tory
Government, by which we presume he means the Treasury. No; we consider
that such prosecutions are ill-advised, and expressly suggested that
such action ought not to be taken against a book which we believed to be
rendered innocuous by the tedious and stupid qualities which the critic
discovered and explained. Secondly, Mr. Wilde hints that the "rights of
literature" include a right to say what it pleases, how it pleases and
where it pleases. That is a right not only not recognised by the law of
the land, but expressly denied by penalties which have been repeatedly
enforced. Then what does Mr. Oscar Wilde mean by talking about the
"rights of literature"? We will not insult an artist, who is by his own
account un-moral or supra-moral by suggesting that he means "moral
rights." But he tells us that limitations may be set on action but ought
not to be set on art. Quite so. But art becomes action when the work of
art is published. It is offensive publications that we object to, not
the offensive imaginings of such minds as find their pleasure therein.

* * * * *

LETTER FROM "A LONDON EDITOR."

In the same issue of June 28th appeared the following letter:--

To the Editor of the _St. James's Gazette_.

Sir,--If Mr. Oscar Wilde is the last man in England (according to his
own account) who requires advertisement, his friends and publishers do
not seem to be of the same opinion. Otherwise it is difficult to account
for the following audacious puff-postive which has been sent th