16 SEPTEMBER 1922, Page 3

We must say we feel Lord Sydenham is wholly justified

in maintaining actively his later opinion and refusing to give up his fight on Mr. Churchill's grounds. Far from staining his record in this question, as Mr. Churchill suggests, Lord Sydenham has rather increased his credit for sincerity and integrity. For it is only amour propre which makes us cling to a view found false in the light of subsequent information. It is the exceptional man who apologizes, and rarer still is he who admits error. When he does, it increases our respect for him. Where there is no change of ideas there cannot very well be any progress. It is a very old political habit to treat a change of opinion as a cause of ridicule if not as a crime. Lord Sydenham meets the familiar charge in exactly the right way.