15 DECEMBER 1888, Page 15

WHEN TO FIRE.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." 1 SIR,—Mr. Balfour's view of the proper way to use " the whiff

of grapeshot" is certainly the First Napoleon's. " It is false," says Napoleon, "that we fired first with blank charge ; it had been a waste of life to do that." (Carlyle's " French Revolu- tion," Vol. III., p. 272.) And that of Escalus "Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is oft the nurse of second woe."

(Measure for Measure, Act ii., Scene 1.) Eversley, Wimborne Road, Poole, Dorset, December 8th.