13 DECEMBER 1946, Page 16

AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY M.P.

SIR,—If the Librarian of the House of Commons had extended his researches a little further he would have found that, though a Mr. Anthony Henley was a Member of Parliament when Walpole brought forward his Excise Scheme, he is listed as voting against it, see 8 Parliamentary History 1312. The letter published in your issue of December 6th can, therefore, scarcely be authentic. A passage from a newspaper published in 1819 in, I suppose, Stamford, purporting to quote from a paper published in Shrewsbury in 1772, is hardly convincing evidence of a letter supposed to have been written to constituents in Southampton in

1733.-1 am, Sir, your obedient servant. L. A. ABRAHAM. House of Commons.