18 NOVEMBER 1916, Page 12

MELBOURNE OR CHURCHILL?

[To THE EDITOR GP THE " SPECTATOR.")

p. 572 of your last number you attribute to"the Queen's pet lamb" the saying: "When I hear people say something must be done I know they mean to 'do something foolish." Did not Lord Randolph Churchill say: "When people run about saying that something must be -done then something foolish is sure to be done" ? The Lam Journal recently put down the latter dictum to Lord Salisbury. Can any one tell us with authority who was time author of the met? Of course the later statesman may have quoted the elder, but I fancy that the credit is due to the former.—I -am, _Sir, ae., H. C.