16 NOVEMBER 1934, Page 6

Sir John Simon dropped an interesting challenge to students of

literature in the course of his speech in the debate on the private manufacture of armaments last week. He based his peroration on what he thought was on the whole " the most .moving single sentence in modern English literature "—the ending of Thackeray's chapter on Waterloo in Vanity Fair :

" No more firing was heard at Brussels. The pursuit rolled miles away. Darkness came down on the field and city ; and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet in his heart."

" The most moving single sentence "—it is a large claim. I should be interested to hear of some rival suggestions.