15 FEBRUARY 1997, Page 23

Sir: For a journal which believes in a civili- sation

grounded on the rule of law, which one assumes The Spectator does, what can be the motive for publishing an article enti- tled 'The big-hearted killer', subtitled 'trib- ute to the underworld's outstanding states- man', and ending with the sentence 'Capone was not a good man, nor was he a monster; he was a 20th-century archetype'? Doesn't this suggest a sort of dandyish moral rela- tivism at the top, a kind of cavalier chatter, too often found in organs of the establish- ment nowadays, that encourages young men like, say, Darius Guppy to rationalise their own foolish crimes as minor and damage their lives, perhaps irretrievably, as a result?

Stoddard Martin

Flat 1, 15 Lennox Gardens, London SW1